


Eight Trigrams Multiple Bad Choices

by Snagglefanged



Category: Naruto
Genre: (Mentions of past trauma), Adultery, Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Bad Decisions, Biting, Cheating, Childlessness, Children, Creative Misuse of Jutsu, Denial, Don't Try This At Home, F/M, Guilt, Happy Ending, Kitchen Sex, Light Bondage, M/M, Masturbation, Medical Trauma, Multi, Office Sex, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Parenthood, Polyamory Done Wrong, Pregnancy, Pregnant Sex, Rough Sex, Size Kink, Tags May Change, Threesome - F/M/M, Unsafe Sex, Voyeurism, Water Sex, both? both. both is good., cheaters treated sympathetically, dramatic porn, ninja don't understand condoms, paternity issues, porny drama, these warnings are here for a reason, thin walls, you got your drama in my porn! you got your porn in my drama!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2019-04-09
Packaged: 2019-08-08 03:51:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 32
Words: 115,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16421891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snagglefanged/pseuds/Snagglefanged
Summary: When Sasuke brings Taka back to Konoha with him, they settle only uneasily into life in the village. Hinata wants to help, but bringing her life into the periphery of Suigetsu's in particular is going to bring a whole lot of problems down on her head. He's funny, she likes him - she's sweet, and pretty, he's keen, but... she's with Naruto. Things are going to go wrong.





	1. They'll Just Cause Trouble Here

When Uchiha Sasuke returns to Konoha, he does not do so alone; three companions arrive with him, whose faces may be familiar to those aware of the days he'd spent upon a quest for vengeance. Karin, Jūgo, Hōzuki Suigetsu… these are the allies he'd chosen in those days, and they'd rejoined him once he'd set out on his new journey to atone and seek new perspectives. It's not as though they have anywhere else to go, after all, and leaving them alone with no help or refuge had seemed, to Sasuke, to be the kind of thing he oughtn't do, not if he really wants to atone for anything.

It's because of him that their names had become infamous in the first place, after all; they wouldn't have been deemed criminals if they hadn't been helping him in his goals. He has a second chance, now, and they deserve the same thing.

Admittedly, as Sasuke discovers when he broaches the topic in Konoha, not everyone agrees. He hears a lot about 'outsiders' and 'thugs' and has to swallow a bitterness that rises in his throat with every word. Even Naruto, so forgiving, so merciful, is heard to complain - loudly - about the idea of Taka gaining pardons and places in Konoha. Worse, he does it in their hearing; whether or not he meant to do so is immaterial.

"They'll just cause trouble here! Why can't Sasuke stick to his _real_ friends, and not _these_ guys? They got him to do all that dodgy stuff, he never would've done that with Team Seven!"

Naruto's voice is loud enough to go beyond the confines of the Hokage's office. Sasuke isn't sure if Naruto knows or cares who's waiting outside, but it stings all the same. There are still things Naruto just doesn't understand, and it seems he never will. Maybe he'd be more reasonable if he wasn't feeling jealous; maybe once he cools down he'll regret saying anything like that. It doesn't really matter; what matters are the looks on the faces of Sasuke's Taka teammates.

Jūgo just looks a little regretful, in a polite sort of way, as though he kind of agrees with any assessment in which he ought not be welcome somewhere. (Sasuke reminds himself that he really needs to reassure Jūgo on that score, as soon as possible.) Karin looks scornful; if she's upset, she's covering it with that aura of _who'd want to be welcomed by someone like you anyway?_ (She's probably hurt, but Sasuke's pretty sure she'll handle it, and if anyone pushes her, she can probably be just as loud as Naruto.) Suigetsu looks bitter, at first, and then darkly, viciously amused by some thought he declines to share with anyone. (That's actually worrying; Sasuke's seldom known him to refrain from speaking his mind, so whatever he's thinking may be cause for concern.)

All of them say the right things when given an audience, though, and the whole thing goes ahead smoothly enough, despite Naruto's sulking.

It's awkward. Of course it's awkward, with three new people in the village whose only connection to it is their sometime affiliation with the most infamous shinobi still alive in the village. Karin argues a lot, with a whole lot of different people, but she does seem to be settling in all right, for whatever value of 'all right' could be expected with her. Jūgo's outbursts might have been a problem, but he's always by Sasuke's side, and Sasuke can quell those impulses easily, so Jūgo spends a lot of time in the forest and Sasuke goes with him when he does. That's fine. Sasuke likes the quiet out there anyway, and if he's helping Jūgo there's no way he can feel guilty about absenting himself. Suigetsu's mouth gets him into trouble, and out of it again, at an alarming rate - Sasuke's heard him talk to Sai with the kind of frank bluntness from both parties that most people apparently find offputting, but Sasuke honestly finds it somewhat refreshing. They get to the point without dancing around the issue for days, at least.

Naruto still doesn't trust any of them, and Sasuke can tell they've noticed, but nothing's on fire and everybody involved is, for one thing, allegedly an adult and thus should be expected to take care of it for themselves, and for another thing, they're all much too stubborn for talking it out to be a useful plan.

Everything gets a whole lot less tense for everybody once Naruto goes off on missions - they tend to be long ones, and from the word around town they're for some very specific reasons; Uzumaki Naruto, war hero, needs to be kept in the public eye and given a lot of experience so that he can become Uzumaki Naruto, Hokage, as soon as possible. When he's gone, there are obviously people who miss him, what with how popular he's become these days, but none of Taka are counted in that number. They'd far rather spend time with Sasuke.

It's on a trip out to buy groceries that Sasuke encounters Hinata. He does remember her, at least, though he'd have been hard-pressed to do that in the old days; she's quiet and polite and has always seemed intent upon taking up as little space in the world as possible. It's hard to _like_ someone so retiring, when liking generally involves getting to know people, but Sasuke doesn't mind her, which is close enough. She doesn't shout or attempt stupid stunts, and she's not one of the girls who always used to try to cling to him. Those are all good things, and so is the part where even now, he never sees any doubt or anger about him lingering in her eyes. She hasn't held a grudge, or clung to mistrust, which keeps the tension out of the air when she's around Sasuke.

"Hey, who's this?" That comment comes from Suigetsu, beside Sasuke, who's looking curiously at Hinata, so Sasuke does the expected thing and introduces them.

Hinata, meanwhile, had not been expecting to see Sasuke doing something like buying vegetables. It's an incredibly silly thought and one she'll never speak aloud, but somewhere along the way her mental image of him had failed to include prosaic human things like the fact that he eats. He's always been such a distant figure that it's hard to imagine anything about his life. The basket of daikon, soybeans, sweet potatoes and cabbage he's carrying is a surprising reminder of normality in someone she's mostly seen in rather more abnormal contexts.

The man with him… she knows him by sight, vaguely, and by some things Naruto's said and what others have been talking about, but she's never met him face to face before. He certainly doesn't seem like he's intending to undermine everything about Konoha when he grins at her and says hello, even if his teeth are very, very sharp. She's used to grins with a few fangs in, after years on a team with Kiba, but not quite this many of them. They don't dominate his face, though; that's reserved for the very bright purple eyes, sparkling with good humour.

"It's nice to meet you?" she offers, and sees him grin again.

"Same to you. Hinata, was it? I heard a little about you, how you did a bunch of stuff to rescue your little sister? That's pretty brave of you."

Startled, Hinata goes pink. She hasn't heard much of that herself, and wonders who'd told him something like that. Of course, she'll be grateful to Naruto and the others forever for coming to save her and Hanabi, but everything she's heard has been about their rescuing her and saving the world. She'd just managed to get herself stolen away by Toneri, that was all, and then the others had come to help her. "Oh, I… just tried to help the team," she stammers out. "Naruto, and Shikamaru, and Sakura, and Sai, they came to save both of us in the end."

"Still brave," Suigetsu counters cheerfully. "Saved the world, saved your sister… sure sounds like what a really good big sister ought to be doing, right?"

"Oh - well - thank you?" She can feel that the blush has reached her ears by now, and suspects it's migrating down her neck as well. She's always blushed easily, and knowing that just makes her more embarrassed, which only makes the blushing worse - and she's not used to this kind of praise. "Do you… have sisters, then?" she asks, reaching for the first related topic she can find.

"Nah, I had a brother." That bright smile dims, and Suigetsu glances away for a moment, before he looks back at her, cheerful. "But he was great, too, even if he never stopped an apocalypse in its tracks."

"Oh." She notices that Sasuke's attention has strayed - he's inspecting the tomatoes nearby, leaving them to talk. 'Had' is past tense, so… Sasuke's friend, like Sasuke himself, must be the only surviving sibling. And he probably doesn't have parents either, she can guess, or not good ones, or surely he'd be trying to get home to them. Probably an orphan, with rumours around him and not many friends in the village… that kind of life must be a lonely one. That thought makes Hinata decide that she really ought to try to be friendly with him. It doesn't seem as though that will be hard, in any case, when he's being so nice to her. "I'm sure he must have been?" she offers. "And he must have cared a lot about you."

Suigetsu's answering smile is so warm, so fond, that it entirely overcomes the slightly sinister effect of all those razor-sharp teeth, entirely transforming the look of his face, and Hinata finds she's smiling in response, automatically. "He did. Taught me practically everything, raised me, gave me something to look up to…" It's a more open admission than she might have expected from him, creating an unexpected sense of closeness. Then, his expression becomes a more ordinary grin as he changes the subject, telling her, "But you look like you've been picking out a lot of things today - I guess you know which vegetables are the best around here?" His playfully wheedling tone makes her feel a little odd, and she's not quite sure why. "Maybe you could show me? It'd be really nice if you did…"

"Y-yes, all right, I can show you," she agrees hastily, her hands fumbling on the handle of her basket as she shifts it onto her arm. _This is ridiculous,_ she chides herself, feeling the warmth surge in her face again. _There's no reason to go blushing when someone you've just met asks you to help choose vegetables!_

He pays such close attention to everything she says, listens to all her recommendations and discusses them thoughtfully - these may just be groceries, but it's simultaneously both pleasant and uncomfortable to be treated as though her opinion holds so much weight. Finally, she decides she'd better call it a day, before she can embarrass herself without even knowing why she's acting this way.

"I'd better get back if I want to cook these…"

"Aww." Suigetsu grins at her again, and waves as she steps back. "Okay then, thanks for the help. Seeya another time?" At her nod, he brightens further. "Bye, Hinata!"

Clutching her bag of groceries tightly against her chest, Hinata hurries home, feeling a little shaken. She doesn't usually make friends this easily, and it doesn't usually leave her feeling so odd while she does, but she likes him. She only hopes that next time they meet, she won't be feeling quite so silly.


	2. Doing The Right Thing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taka really do need help, and Hinata's determined to be the one to give them that.

Naruto has been gone for a month, now, and Hinata misses him terribly. Everything seems so much simpler when he's around, and the world becomes bright and clear and uncomplicated in the face of his optimism, his boundless confidence and convictions about how things ought to be. She's always felt as though if she could just stand in that light, she could be brave and strong as well, not shrinking away from anything. He's been inspiring her since they were very small, since the very first time they met, and she's watched him ever since.

She's loved Naruto for who he is since they were children. It's part of her now, that feeling, and she doesn't know where she'd be without it. But he's special, and she doesn't begrudge him his time away, because he inspires everyone, not just her, and his missions are part of making the world a better place. She can wait for him to come home, she tells herself, no matter how much she does miss him.

While he's gone, she can spend time with her sister, with her friends… even without Naruto, she isn't lonely, not with all these people to be around. Today, for instance, she's been to see Kurenai-sensei, and played with little Mirai, who is sweet and cheerful and incredibly quick to get into mischief. It actually helps, having the Byakugan; three hundred and sixty degrees of vision sometimes feel mandatory to keep track of that little girl. After that, she'd taken the chance to stop and have tea with Shino. He's a lot more thoughtful than people give him credit for, and waits until the tea and cakes are all gone before discussing his most recent progress in breeding new and better beetles. It's his passion in life, and she can't fault that, even when insects aren't nearly as exciting for her as they are for him. And he's so good with them, and they make his voice come alive - given the chance, and a willing audience, the normally quiet Shino can become startlingly enthusiastic about his field of expertise. Hinata likes seeing him like that, and how happy it makes him to have somebody listen to what he has to say.

Once Shino's gone home to assist his father with clan matters, Hinata makes her way to the Third Training Ground - there are memories here, ones she cherishes. There are also other visitors, which she hadn't been expecting, but it's nice to see Kiba and Akamaru. They aren't actually training, she notes, as she steps through the bushes; Akamaru is lying beside a stump, apparently half-asleep, while Kiba is having something halfway between an argument and an impassioned debate with somebody unexpected - Sasuke's friend, Suigetsu.

By the sound of it, they are disagreeing quite firmly on a few points of combat tactics, and trying to convince each other to change their minds. Hinata could have told Suigetsu, had she arrived in time, that trying to change Kiba's mind on just about anything is a waste of time, but Suigetsu appears to be holding his own. That's actually pretty impressive; most people would have stormed off or given up by now.

The wind changes, and Kiba breaks off mid-rebuttal to turn and look at her. "Oh, hi, Hinata. Looking to get some training in?"

"Maybe a little," she admits. "What were you arguing about?"

" _This_ guy thinks he could fool my nose," Kiba says, snorting derisively.

"We did it before," Suigetsu points out, cheerfully. "And you've got _no idea_ how many ways I could dodge a tracker like you."

"Yeah, right." Kiba rolls his eyes, and looks at Hinata for support. "You know it's not that easy, _you_ tell him."

"Kiba is very good," Hinata agrees politely, looking between them.

"Mm, maybe almost as good as he thinks he is." There's a peal of laughter from Suigetsu.

"Hey! I'll show you. Akamaru, here! …Akamaru, _c'mon_ … Ugh." With Akamaru opening one eye and then going back to sleep, Kiba folds his arms huffily. "Next time, then."

"Sure, I could use the practice. Don't wanna get rusty."

Hinata tilts her head a little. "Are you going to go on missions?" she asks curiously.

"…Probably not." All of Suigetsu's mirth disappears, so suddenly that Hinata feels a little guilty. "I mean, they're letting me live here and all, but I'm not a Konoha ninja, so it's not like I can expect to get Konoha missions."

"Ha!" Kiba grins triumphantly. "If you can't do missions, you're not going to get any more experience, and I just keep getting better."

"Kiba!" Hinata's voice, though quiet, is reproving. Suigetsu looks unhappy enough with that situation that she doesn't want anyone twisting the knife.

"Nah, 'sokay, but thanks," Suigetsu tells her, waving a hand carelessly. "Doesn't matter if he's rude. Not like I'm Mister Manners either." A sudden sharp smile appears, and he gives Kiba a sidelong look. "Besides, I've been a jōnin since I was twelve, I can afford to give him a bit of time to catch up."

Amid Kiba's spluttering indignation, Hinata asks, "Since you were twelve? You must have been very strong."

"You better believe it," Suigetsu informs her, shoulders squaring up, posture straightening with sudden pride. "Everybody knew it back then. They all knew I was gonna be one of the best."

"And now look at you," Kiba interjects, wiping the smile off Suigetsu's face. The look of raw, bitter fury he gets in response is enough to make him take one reflexive step backwards, and then he and Hinata are left to watch Suigetsu stalking away.

"That really hurt him, Kiba," Hinata says, a little shocked. "I'm -" She shakes her head and runs after Suigetsu. Something in the look on his face had made her think, somehow, of nights she'd spent once upon a time, thinking about the way others have described her. They'd called her progress disappointing, and been unhappy with her, but she'd been even more disappointed in herself for failing, for not living up to everything she ought to have been.

For all Suigetsu's seeming confidence, he too has fallen short of expectations that must have been dear to him, and now here he is, trying to make something of himself in the space those lost expectations have left behind. It hurts to fail; she knows that better than most.

" _Wait_!" she calls, having to quicken her pace still further to catch up. "Wait, please, I'm sorry for what Kiba said just now."

Suigetsu halts, turning back to look at her, but the anger she'd been bracing herself to face isn't there. Instead, he just looks tired. "Well, it's true," he says, with a shrug, and a clearly forced smile. "Things got a bit off-track somewhere along the way. Not much I can do about that now."

Hinata isn't quite sure what to say. "…Things will get better," she promises, trying to fill her voice with the kind of confident optimism she's always heard in Naruto's voice, that had inspired her over so many years of feeling as though nothing could possibly be all right. "I… we can help. If you're living here, you're one of us now, so we can help you. Maybe -" she falters for a moment, struggling to find the right words "- maybe it's not what you wanted, but there will be something, I'm sure of it. We can talk to people and find something you can do." She's being bolder than she might once have been, but it feels almost as though she's offering him the words she'd wished someone would give her, and the ones she'd wished to have the courage to give to others when she was smaller. _It will be all right. Let me help. It will be better._

Her reward, here and now, is a chance to see that tired look become a sad smile that slowly warms into something brighter and happier.

"…Thanks. I might need it," Suigetsu admits, with the complete frankness she's beginning to realise is his natural state.

"…You know where Ichiraku is, don't you?" At his nod, Hinata continues, "Maybe - could you meet me there in three days? Then I could see who I could talk to in the meantime." There's something exciting about making plans like this, about doing her best for someone else. It's the kind of thing Naruto might do, she thinks, and that makes her even happier.

"You'd do that? Well, okay, sure, I'll see you there!" Suigetsu's liveliness is returning quickly. "You're really nice, you know that?"

"Oh, ah - thank you?" Hinata goes a little pink, there. "I'm just doing the right thing, that's all."

There's a wry laugh from Suigetsu in response, and he tilts his head to the side as he looks at her, one eye half-closed. "Seems like that might be the rarest thing in the world, really - people doing the right thing." He shrugs carelessly and grins at her. "Now, me, I never figured out how. See you!"

Hinata watches as he strolls away, and reminds herself to ask Kiba to apologise to him, later. Kiba's loud, but he has a good heart, and she doesn't want to see them at odds because he'd run his mouth carelessly, without thinking about the repercussions. Truth be told, she envies him that, sometimes, that ability to stop thinking about repercussions, because sometimes it feels like that's all she ever does. At times like this, when someone's been hurt by it, she doesn't envy him, though.

It takes her until the next day to find the first of those she wants to ask for help; Ino has been busy elsewhere, working on something with her clan. Asking her for help had seemed like the logical first step, though; Hinata knows that Ino will hear her out, and Ino knows practically everyone. Ino can ask people for things without hesitation. If there's a shred of shyness in her, Hinata's never seen it.

Ino's sitting with Chōji when Hinata finds her, but that's all right; Hinata doesn't mind talking about things while Chōji's there. He's one of the most kindhearted people she knows, and he won't laugh at her.

"Um, Ino?" She waits for Ino to look her way, and comes closer, twisting her fingers together and untwisting them again when she realises she's doing it.

"Hinata? What is it?"

"Oh, hi, Hinata," Chōji puts in, amiably, but he goes quiet again when Ino gestures for him to let Hinata speak.

"There's somebody who might need a bit of help, so... I said I'd ask some people, and see what we could do..."

"Hm? Who is it?" Ino pushes a lock of hair back behind her ear so that it's no longer covering one eye. It sits precariously, as though it'll fall back into place the moment she moves her head, but for now Ino's meeting Hinata's gaze with both her eyes visible.

"It's one of Sasuke's friends, the ones that came to the village with him?"

"Not that Karin, I hope? Last I checked, she'd rather gnaw off her own fingers than get help from anybody," Ino scoffs mildly. She has, apparently, butted heads with Karin at some point, though it can't have been too bad, because there's no actual hostility in her voice when she says Karin's name. 

"No, not Karin. It's Suigetsu."

"Oh, _him_!" Ino's eyes gleam, and she laughs. "I wouldn't have thought he'd need help with anything except where to find his pants!"

"Huh?" Chōji blinks, looking bewildered, and Hinata's glad he's asked, so she doesn't have to. She has no idea what sort of explanation there might be for a remark like that, and isn't sure she wants to guess.

"You hadn't heard? Either of you?" Ino sighs theatrically. "Honestly, am I the _only_ one around here who keeps up with the gossip?" Her feigned exasperation doesn't last long, defeated by her obvious eagerness to share what she knows. "Anyway, what I heard is he can't seem to keep his clothes on. People keep seeing him half-dressed or worse, and the Anbu member who went to check up on him for something found him lazing around, completely naked, and not a single care in the world about it. Can you _imagine_?"

"What, where people could see him?" Chōji asks, still puzzled.

"Well, I guess he can't have been where _everyone_ could see him, or everyone would know by now," Ino has to admit, though she clearly regrets having to soften the impact of a piece of gossip that juicy. "But people _have_ seen him, and all of them say he doesn't seem to care if he's naked or not."

Hinata doesn't respond. She can't, not when she's trying very hard not to picture what Ino's described. Suigetsu hadn't _seemed_ like the exhibitionist type when she'd met him, but maybe she'd misjudged him? He _had_ seemed quite confident, though, so maybe he really was confident enough not to be bothered by things like being seen naked.

There are the baths, of course, so it's not as though nobody ever sees anybody naked, but even there, Hinata tends to find herself feeling self-conscious when she feels like anybody might be looking at her. Even the other girls are enough to make her feel a little shy; she can't imagine going naked where anybody, regardless of gender, might be able to look at her at any moment.

Anybody, no matter who, might end up seeing Suigetsu naked. That thought pops into her head, and Hinata can feel her face heating up as her brain winds itself into a flustered tangle of confusion.

To her horror, she hears Ino say, "Hey, Hinata, you're blushing!"

"N-naked people are embarrassing," she stammers out, going even redder. "I don't know how anyone could do that."

"Oh, well, it's not like anyone would complain if _you_ did," Ino teases, and Hinata feels like she might actually combust from sheer embarrassment.

"Aw, c'mon, Ino, stop it," Chōji cajoles, looking between them. "You wanted some help, Hinata?"

Her hands pressed to her face, Hinata nods. When she finally has enough composure to speak again, she says, "He mentioned that he doesn't really get to do anything, because he's not from the village. He isn't getting any missions and he probably doesn't have a job. That's not right, is it? If Sasuke's friends are living here they should get the chance to make some kind of life, otherwise they're not really getting a fair chance."

Ino's watching Hinata speculatively, but Chōji is nodding.

"You're right," he says, sitting up a bit. "I mean, if they can't find jobs, how will they have the money to buy food? We can't let them starve, nobody should starve in Konoha. We're going to help them, right Ino?"

"...Yeah, we'd probably better. Shikamaru's not gonna like this much, though, I think he's still kind of suspicious of them." Ino shrugs. "But I guess leaving them with no help and nothing to do would be a pretty bad thing if we want them to act like they belong here; not feeling welcome won't help them like the village any better."

Hinata nods firmly. "You'll do it, then? I told him I'd tell him in - well, two days, now. Thank you, Ino, Chōji, I'm sure Sasuke's friends will be a lot happier if we help them feel like they're really part of Konoha."

"Yeah, we'll do it." Ino stands, stretching a little. "I'll ask around, and see who might be able to help them out a bit."

"You really think Shikamaru won't like this?" Chōji asks, uncertainly.

"Probably, but he's not stupid. He's got to understand that if they're going to live in Konoha they need to be treated right, or we'll just turn them into the enemies he's suspicious of them turning out to be. I mean, not everybody's Naruto, right? I'd be pretty angry if I got treated like I didn't belong all the time."

Hinata nods. "Naruto's..." She can't even find the right words. He's special, and she loves him for it. He's stayed positive all this time despite the awful way people have treated him in the past. He's inspiring. But she can't hate people who aren't like that, because if everybody was just like Naruto, nobody would need to be inspired by him. She's needed that, and she doesn't blame anyone else for needing that too, or for being the kind of person who might need that.

She misses him all the more, suddenly, and hopes he'll be coming home soon. She can't wait to tell him how she's been trying to help people and show them Konoha can be their home, just like she knows he'd be doing if he were here right now.

"Yeah. Naruto's just... well, _Naruto_." Ino laughs, waves, and heads off to go do what Hinata's asked.

It's a little more difficult for Hinata to find anyone she can confidently ask about these things, but when she checks in with Kiba and finds out he's given his (grudging) apology to Suigetsu, she has an idea.

She's seen Sasuke walking with Jūgo sometimes recently, and Jūgo always seems to have birds or squirrels or other animals around him. The animals always seem happy to be there, too, so there's something about Jūgo that clearly makes them feel safe and comfortable.

Being in Kiba's team means she knows a little about his family, and she knows his sister specialises in veterinary medical treatment.

For her part, Hana seems intrigued, once Hinata approaches her, about the idea of getting help from someone who can make animals feel better about being treated; Hana has a phenomenal rapport with dogs, but other animals could probably use the extra help. After all, keeping them calm will go a long way toward improving their chances of recovering from whatever problems see them brought in for Hana to look after.

Hinata hasn't found anybody who can help Suigetsu specifically, yet, but she's certain he'll appreciate it if his friends have something to do as well. Besides, that's why she has Ino and Chōji to help her.

By the time the promised day arrives, Hinata's excited. She can't wait to tell Suigetsu what she and the others have worked out, and she keeps darting back to Ichiraku throughout the morning to see if he's there yet.

It's lunchtime by the time he actually arrives, and he greets her with a grin and a wave. He actually seems... surprised to see her?

_He wasn't sure I'd really do it_ , she realises. _Too many people must have disappointed him already._

"Hi, Hinata." That grin is as sharp as ever, but it's even easier now to disregard the fangs and see only how bright and cheerful the smile is, and the way those vivid eyes warm up while he's smiling.

"Hello!" Hinata beams back at him. "I asked some friends to help me, and they did it. I don't know if you know Ino and Chōji? But they helped me to find places where you and your friends can do things."

"What, really? That's amazing." Suigetsu's expression lights up with an excitement that matches Hinata's.

"So, um, your friend Jūgo? Inuzuka Hana treats animals, and she says she'd like to see if he can make the animals feel happier while they're being treated."

Suigetsu chuckles briefly. "That'll be just about perfect for him, I bet."

"And, ah... Karin? Chōji and Ino say they've found some people who might like her help mixing medicine, if she'd like?"

"Haha, that's great, but they'd better hope the medicine doesn't turn out as sour as she is." There's no actual malice there, though, so it seems as if Suigetsu is just used to poking fun at his teammate.

Hinata twiddles her fingers a little. "I, um... we do have something you might be able to do, but I don't know if it'll work? Maybe just for a little while, until you know if you like it?"

"What is it?" There's an inquisitive head-tilt from Suigetsu, and he's paying even closer attention now.

"Well, Tenten really wants to make sure the shop she's trying to make has the best weapons in it, so I think she's looking for somebody to help her test them out?"

"...A weapons shop?" Suigetsu lets out a peal of delighted laughter. "Holy crap, you're _amazing_ , that's, like... completely _perfect_! Thanks!"

All the previous moments in which she'd thought Suigetsu looked happy pale in comparison to this one. He's practically radiating joy now, and Hinata feels breathless with delight at being the cause of making someone that incredibly happy.

"I owe you for this, _seriously_ , if there's _anything_ I can do...?"

"It's all right, this is just doing the right thing," she assures him. "I... we just want you to feel like Konoha can really be your home."

"You're the nicest girl I've ever met, you know that?"

"Oh, um, thank you?" Hinata can feel her cheeks heating up again at his praise. "...Do you want to get something to eat?" she asks hastily, looking across at the Ichiraku sign. "It's lunchtime, after all..."

"Well, sure." Another big grin from Suigetsu, and he makes a grand, flourishing gesture. "After you."

He's funny, and good company, and Hinata nearly chokes on her ramen a few times at his jokes. They talk about food, and places they've seen and liked, and so many other inconsequential little things, but none of them seem boring at all. He's also easy enough to get started on a story so that he won't notice that Hinata is the one who discreetly pays Teuchi - it wouldn't be fair, she thinks, to invite someone without a job to eat out and then expect him to pay - and it's not until afterwards that he realises.

"I'll treat you to something in return, you'll see," he insists. "Soon as I can, I'll pay you back properly."

When they go their separate ways, Hinata is still smiling, happy to have enjoyed that time so much.

If only Naruto were here, she tells herself, everything would be absolutely perfect.


	3. What She Found In The Water

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata sees more of Suigetsu than she'd bargained for.

Naruto has still not returned to the village. It's been a month and a half since Hinata's last seen him, and she's missing him even more now. The only thing she can really do, though, is keep herself busy and try not to fret; somewhere out there, he's doing his best to make the world a better place, so she can't possibly begrudge him the time he's spending away. She gets on with her training, spends time with friends, and with her sister, who's always happy if the two of them get an afternoon all to themselves, and tries not to mope or complain.

At least her efforts for Sasuke's friends seem to be paying off; Jūgo usually needs Sasuke somewhere at hand, or someone else who can make sure everything in't going to go wrong, but when he's around, animals relax completely and allow Hana to get on with treating them, without causing any trouble; Karin has impressed a great many people already with her skills, now that she's involved in concocting medicines, and from what Hinata's heard, she may end up getting even more medical training, to treat people without having to use her unusual abilities along the way; and Suigetsu... he seems so much happier now, all the time, and always has something to talk about when it comes to the weapons he and Tenten have been testing out.

Suigetsu isn't just Tenten's employee - they're becoming friends, now.

It makes Hinata happy, knowing that Taka are becoming part of Konoha. People are getting used to seeing them, and accepting their skills at their jobs, and every time somebody sees them as the people who are performing functions in the village, the stories of their past die down just a little more. In another year, perhaps, it will be as though they've been here all along. They won't have to be lonely, or have people look down on them; they'll be part of the village and the village will accept them. At least, that's what Hinata's hoping for, anyway.

It would be nice to think of them having a lot of friends here, and feeling at home in the village. It would be nice to think of the village showing that it can genuinely embody its Will of Fire, make people who live here part of one great big family and work beside them to ensure everybody feels as though they're part of Konoha's future, that what they do matters, that their strength is part of an even stronger whole that's united to look after each other. Hinata wants that, so very much; she loves her village, and wants to see it being at its best, which means not making people feel like outcasts anymore when they ought to be welcomed in and treated kindly.

Enough people have been through enough bad things, enough loneliness and isolation; there shouldn't have to be any more.

She thinks about that when she's hearing about how Taka are beginning to fit in, and it makes her happier. She thinks about it, too, when she meets others in need of help. There's always somebody out there who need something - sometimes it's the kind of thing shinobi are hired to do, be it for large missions or just the basic missions assigned to new genin, but sometimes the help that's needed is too brief to be worth a mission, or not worth that kind of money, or the person just can't afford to pay.

Hinata drops off a hot meal for an old man one day, and holds a ladder for a woman trying to get up high enough to repaint a sign on another day. It takes very little of her time, and she's happy to be helpful. It's nice to be able to step forward and say _Yes, I can do that._ She doesn't have to hang back and feel as if she ought to be apologising for getting involved, now, not when these are such little things, and so easy to do.

It's not as though she expects gratitude, or feels like she's making some huge contribution to the welfare of the world - it's just the right thing to do, so she does it.

That's why when, on one of her errands, she spots a little girl crying beside a waterway, she doesn't hesitate for a moment before going over to see what's wrong. The girl, for her part, is keen to have somebody help her, and any expression of concern is good enough for her.

"I dropped my bear in the water and he floated away," the girl wails, eyes streaming with tears, "and now he'll be gone forever 'cos I can't swim an' Mama says I can't go in the water, not for anything."

"I'll go get your bear, don't worry," Hinata promises, and activates her Byakugan as she jogs along the edge of the water, just to make sure the bear hasn't sunk to the bottom or become caught on something along the way. There's no sign of a toy anywhere in the water, though she does catch sight of something that had probably once been some manner of book, before prolonged immersion had ruined it. All Hinata can tell about it now is that it still has the remnants of a 'no' symbol on the cover, but the rest is damaged beyond recognition. She wonders, a little, who'd throw a book into the water, because it's not close enough to the edge to simply have been dropped, but dismisses that thought to concentrate on finding the little girl's bear.

There's a ring in the water, just below a bridge, and Hinata stops to retrieve it. It's not what she's looking for, but it's probably very important to someone; she can go looking for the owner, later, and return it to them. They're probably missing it, she thinks, and searching absolutely everywhere, unable to work out where they'd lost it, so they'll be happy to have it back.

If there's one thing about the way the village has been damaged and rebuilt in recent years, it's that anything like this, still relatively out in the open, can't have been lost all that long ago, so it probably still has an owner who very much wants it returned. It shouldn't be too difficult to find out whose it is, really. Hinata tucks the ring into her pocket and keeps moving, still searching for the bear.

She knows this waterway ends in something that can't quite be called a lake, but can't quite be called a pond, a little further away from the village, so if the bear isn't close by, she's going to have to go there, most likely, or else start asking around and find out if anybody else has fished a toy out of the water without knowing whose it is. After a little more searching, she sighs, deactivates her Byakugan, and decides to go directly to the endpoint. She can always backtrack later if necessary, but this might save her some time.

As Hinata hurries along, she catches the scent of fresh-baked treats, carried on the breeze, and flowers, and someone's excessively strong perfume, and she wonders if this is what life is like for Kiba all the time. His sense of smell is incredibly powerful, and she's seen odours hit him hard more than once in the past. This is just a tiny sample, then, of the world of scents that Kiba lives in every day, a sample that's mercifully short on the more unpleasant smells anyone with enhanced senses might have to deal with.

The fact that she's thinking about Kiba's clan, and how they live their day-to-day lives, goes a long way toward explaining why, even as she reaches the large pond - or small lake - she doesn't hear the splashing at first, and she's taken completely by surprise when Suigetsu's head pops up - no, _forms_ up - out of the water.

Even as Hinata lets out a startled squeak, and falls onto her backside on the shore, Suigetsu rises further from the water. He's visible from the waist up, and there is not a stitch of clothing anywhere on what Hinata can see of him. She doesn't want to stare - she'd rather be looking practically anywhere else - but with water still dripping down from Suigetsu's shoulders and chest, the willpower required not to track its downward progress with her eyes and keep her focus on his face is difficult enough, without trying to find something else to look at while also finding words for why she can't look at him. She knows she's rapidly progressing toward beet-red, but can't do a thing about it.

"Hi, Hinata!" Suigetsu says, grinning cheerfully. "Didja come out here for a swim? The water's pretty nice if you wanna get in, I promise."

_Swimming. With him. In front of him._ Hinata thinks her brain might actually have short-circuited on that one. She opens her mouth to reply, but no words appear.

Suigetsu wades closer, putting a hand on the bank, the rest of his body forming up, and Hinata is trying so very hard not to look, but she knows it's all there now, it isn't just melded with the water the way he'd apparently been until she'd arrived. "I mean, you don't have to, but it _is_ pretty warm out, so it might be nice?"

"I - um - I -" She's still struggling to put together anything like a coherent sentence, and he doesn't appear to have realised anything's wrong. He looks completely casual, totally relaxed, as though he talks to people while stark naked all the time - which, judging by Ino's gossip, might not be entirely untrue. "There was a little girl, she's lost her bear, so I promised her I'd look for it." A whole sentence, and Hinata's relieved that she's managing to sound something close to normal again. "I thought... it might have ended up here?"

"Oh, that thing?" Suigetsu laughs. "Yeah, I saw it. Hold on a moment and I'll get it." He disappears under the water, and returns a moment later, holding a water-logged pink bear with a drooping red ribbon and an expression of near-terminal benevolence. Climbing most of the way out of the water, he holds it out to her. "This the one?"

"Y-yes, I think so." Why, _why_ does he have to hold it like that, so that her glance down to examine the bear means her field of vision also encompasses a whole lot of his body? Hinata jerks her gaze back up to his face again, and reaches out to take the bear with hands that shake. He's leaning in, too, to pass it to her, and when Hinata feels soggy fur beneath her fingers, she grabs the bear tightly. "Thank you!" Her voice is practically a squeak again.

"Hey, no problem. It's really nice of you to come all this way to find some kid's toy, y'know." Suigetsu grins at her again. "I said you were probably the nicest girl I'd ever met, and you just keep proving it. The bear's gonna be fine once it dries, I'm sure."

"I - y-yes, of course, once it's dry it'll be as good as new." Hinata seizes upon the sequence of facts she can understand and hold onto. "I should go take it back to her - I'll - um, I'll see you later!" She scrambles to her feet, clutching the bear.

"Okay, sure. Seeya, Hinata!" Suigetsu waves jauntily, and allows himself to fall back into the water, disappearing beneath its surface. Once it closes over him, he's gone - she can't see him at all, which would be fascinating if she weren't still so flustered - but she gets the feeling he's still watching her somehow.

She hurries off to find somewhere more private and wait for the blushing to die down before she can return the bear.

_What_ was _that?_ She's no stranger to blushing, but something about this time had felt different. She doesn't really want to think about it, because there's an odd sense of guilt creeping up on her, as though being this flustered by someone is some kind of betrayal.

It's not as though Suigetsu had seemed to be teasing her, or trying to embarrass her; he hadn't seemed to realise anything was wrong at all. From what she remembers Ino saying, he's just... more inclined than most toward being naked, to the point that it apparently doesn't even register in his head that there's a problem with it. And he hadn't come looking for her - she'd turned up where he'd been swimming alone, with nobody else to see him. He'd done the polite thing, at least at first, and gone somewhere fairly private before taking his clothes off, so Hinata supposes she can't exactly blame him for still being naked when someone else had turned up unexpectedly.

Oddly, reminding herself of this helps her to feel better. She doesn't need to feel the same kind of embarrassed she'd feel if she were to walk in on some people while they were naked, because her being there hadn't upset or embarrassed him. So it's all right, surely.

It takes her just a little longer to calm down enough that she can go and return the bear, and find someone to tell about the missing ring, and then she hurries home and shuts herself in her bedroom.

Her clothes are still damp from the bear, and the point where she'd had to fish the ring out of the water, but she doesn't really want to get changed just yet. Instead, she pulls them off, and climbs into bed, pulling the blanket up over herself. Maybe a nap will help settle the odd breathless feeling she keeps getting, where she's suddenly aware of her pulse in every point on her body and her stomach feels strange.

She misses Naruto more than ever right now, and wants to imagine herself curled up in his arms, where she'd have no trouble at all in getting to sleep. He'd hold her close, and kiss her, and tell her he loves her, and -

Hinata's blushing again, even though there's nobody to see. She runs he hands over her breasts, eyes closed, imagining that it's Naruto holding them, Naruto's fingers playing with her nipples, the warmth of Naruto's body at her back instead of an empty space in her bed.

Oh, but he can't smile at her if he's behind her, not the way she wants to imagine him smiling into her eyes - so Hinata rolls onto her back, and pictures Naruto kneeling over her. He'd kiss her, and touch her face and her hair, and she'd smile, and guide his hand down lower -

Hinata's fingers dip between her thighs, and her fingertips brush her clit as she tries to picture Naruto touching her like this. He'd be a bit firmer, she thinks, and presses down a little harder, legs parting further to make it easier. She holds onto the tenderness she imagines in his smile as she touches herself, trying to picture just how he'd bend over her -

\- only now, the body she's picturing is dripping wet, and the smile is razor-sharp, and it's not Naruto's fingers she's imagining touching her, not his hands making her whimper and writhe in her imagination. She's seeing _Suigetsu_ , just as he'd climbed halfway out of the water, only now he crawls all the way out, still perfectly naked, presses her gently back into the grass, slides his fingers inside her pants and goes to work on her body until she's shaking, until she's not sure how much more she can stand, and it feels so good, and the look she's picturing in his eyes is so compelling, that her fingers quicken until her thighs are trembling, until she's driven herself all the way to her stunned and exultant and incredibly guilty climax.

This kind of thing isn't supposed to happen, she thinks, eyes wide, staring at the ceiling. She loves Naruto. She's always loved Naruto. Even now, after that, when she tries to think of Naruto, it's with all the warmth and adoration she remembers, and it's Naruto she can picture spending the rest of her life with.

But... well, she likes Suigetsu. He's likeable. That's all right, but it doesn't explain this. She likes a lot of people, but she's never pictured any of them while touching herself. All the same... thinking about his smile and his face and his body makes her hot and tingly and it keeps giving her mental images of things she's not used to imagining. It gives her flashes of imagination in which he's doing all manner of things to her, and when she sees that in her mind's eye - she realises she's getting turned on all over again.

He turns her on. He's not Naruto, but thinking of him is arousing, and it confuses her. This isn't like her feelings for Naruto, where she knows it's her heart speaking to her above all else. This is her body _wanting_ Suigetsu, _lusting_ after him, craving all the ways it thinks he could make her feel good.

This isn't right. It can't be right. She doesn't know what to do about it, though. It's not Suigetsu's fault something has gone terribly wrong inside her head, and if she avoids him after being friendly with him before, he'll feel rejected. That would be cruel, and she can't bear the thought of being cruel. She can't ask anybody else for advice, either, because what if she really is the only person this happens to? What if they're disgusted by her?

_What if they tell Naruto?_

Hinata blanches.

Naruto can't ever find out about this. It would hurt him too much, especially after the time where she'd pretended to reject him in favour of Toneri. She can't ever tell him, and she can't risk anybody else telling him, either.

She'll just have to be very careful to squash these feelings down into the deepest hole ever created, so they can't hurt anybody at all.

Worried and unhappy, Hinata rolls over and tries to get some sleep.

 

* * *

 

Suigetsu yawns, stretching lazily, draped across Sasuke's couch like an oversized cat. 

Sasuke's sitting nearby, shirtless, trying to open a jar of bruise balm. Eventually, Suigetsu beckons to him, and Sasuke tosses over the jar. It's slippery, and this is faster than Sasuke getting up to find something to open it with.

Once the jar is open, Suigetsu gets up and comes over, to slather Sasuke's bruises in it. "No wonder Jūgo was looking guilty this morning," he observes. "Guess you two had a lot of fun last night, huh?"

It's not like it's any kind of secret, really; all the time Sasuke spends with Jūgo, helping Jūgo feel safe, making sure he knows he won't wake up from a fit of berserk fury and discover he's left a trail of corpses across Konoha, has kept them in close quarters, and things seem to have progressed from there. It's also not any kind of secret because Sasuke and Jūgo aren't actually all that quiet at night, so it's not hard to know what they're doing once the lights go out.

Good for them, really, Suigetsu thinks; he's usually more inclined toward trying to break people up rather than applauding their relationships, but Sasuke seems so much happier now that he's getting laid on the regular, Jūgo's more peaceful, except when he gets a little too rough in bed and has to be coaxed out of a fit of guilt over something Sasuke obviously doesn't mind at all, and finding out about those two had put Karin's nose out of joint for weeks, which Suigetsu still finds hilarious.

She seems to be more or less over it now, which may have ended Suigetsu's fun but also makes things a whole lot quieter for everybody.

Not completely quiet, of course, but that would just be boring. On the whole, it's all pretty good as it is, really.

Sasuke doesn't dignify Suigetsu's question with a response, but Suigetsu had been expecting that in any case; it's not as if Sasuke could really deny it, which makes it too self-evident to reply to.

"Y'know, there's a girl round here that I'm pretty sure is into me," Suigetsu continues, instead. "I reckon I have a chance with her. I mean, she's pretty shy, but she's really nice, and she's seriously hot." He grins. "Reckon I should go for it?"

Sasuke shrugs. "Why not?"

"Yeah, you're right, I oughta see if she wants to have some fun," Suigetsu says, cheerful and careless and totally confident of his future success. It's not as if he's been without any attention; in the couple of years following the war he's found some chances, here and there, to experiment with a few different people. None lately, though, and especially not any in a situation like this.

But those eyes, that hair, that face... this is a sweetheart of a girl with a face to match, and from the hints given by her clothes, her body is pretty damn amazing as well. He hadn't meant anything by it when he'd invited her to come swimming with him, but now he really is thinking about how nice it'd be if he could see her naked - for a start.

And she's interested, he's almost certain of it. Besides, even if he's wrong, she's nice enough that she's not likely to get mad if he expresses an interest.

Maybe he ought to flirt, just a bit, and see how she responds? If she's not into him, no harm done, and he can move on to flirting with somebody else. If she is, though... there's a whole lot of fun that he thinks they could have together.

Humming to himself, he goes to put the bruise balm away, and tries to remember what she'd told him about the things she likes. If he's going to flirt in earnest, those would probably be a good start.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now featuring fanart for this chapter! Linked with permission, and my gratitude!  
> [Hinata seeing Suigetsu](http://itachis-eyes.tumblr.com/post/178706988265/i-enable-all-of-rils-bad-ideas-with-art)


	4. A Beautiful Wedding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata and Naruto tie the knot, though a number of people have complicated feelings about the whole event.

Hinata is really, truly trying to squash the inconvenient feelings she keeps getting around Suigetsu, but he's not playing fair. He appears to be in league with her errant lust, now, because when he takes her out for red bean soup to repay her for the ramen, he seems to be trying even harder to be likeable. Worse, it's working. She tingles inside when he smiles at her, and his compliments leave her smiling and giddy for far too long after each one. It's positively unfair that he can do this to her.

She wishes he would stop, and hopes at the same time, guiltily, that he never does.

It's easier once Naruto is back in the village, though. Once Naruto is back, she can focus on how much she loves him, and the fact that he loves her back, now, just like she'd dreamed of for so very long. Even if she still gets that tingly feeling around Suigetsu, it's less important than the warm and fuzzy feeling around Naruto, which is exactly as things ought to be.

The only awkward part, really, is that Naruto doesn't seem to like Suigetsu, or Sasuke's other two Taka friends, and Hinata isn't sure how to defend them when Naruto's the one who'd inspired her to try to help them in the first place, and when she doesn't want to sound suspiciously invested in Suigetsu's wellbeing, given the internal conflict she's been experiencing about him.

Naruto's problem with them seems to be mostly related to their being around Sasuke when he'd been an enemy of the village, though she's also heard him comment that they're involved in hurting Sakura somehow by keeping Sasuke away from her. All Hinata can really do is gently point out, now and then, that Taka's contributions are probably the reason Sasuke had survived long enough for Naruto to be able to bring him back to Konoha; if they hadn't been protecting him, he might have died out there and Naruto would never have seen him again. Her reminders tend to quell his grumbling for a while each time, and she's glad of that; her feelings here are a little like her feelings for the village.

Just as she wants Konoha to truly embody its Will of Fire and be at its best, the Naruto she loves is the one who reaches out to the world and tries to connect, who can understand and forgive and have compassion for everyone. He is her inspiration, and she wants to stand beside him and cherish the things that have made him worth loving for all this time. His words have helped to keep her from giving up, in moments where giving up had seemed like the only option left for her, and so she thinks it's only fair to try and help him remember that, to help him when it seems like he might want to give up on being who he really is.

At least after one of her reminders, Naruto does go and speak with Jūgo, when when he returns, his comments about Sakura decrease abruptly. The only bit of grumbling she really hears from him about Jūgo after that is a complaint that Jūgo is _really_ hard to hate. Difficult enough, apparently, that Naruto has given up. It's a relief for Hinata, even if it doesn't mean that Naruto will ever be the greatest fan of anyone from Taka.

That's all right; he's free to have his own opinions, just like anybody else.

He rarely says anything about them, anyway, and so things settle into a much more comfortable pattern.

She doesn't tell Naruto about Suigetsu. They're only thoughts. Nobody's actually _done_ anything, so there's no need to upset him by telling him about something that hasn't even happened.

Truth be told, it's easier to forget, now, when she has Naruto here to focus on. And when they do finally get married, that will be the end of it, she thinks. Everything will be settled, and she won't be troubled by that kind of thing anymore. She pushes all her old worries into the back of her mind, and lets herself focus on the future, and Naruto.

 

* * *

 

It had probably been inevitable that Sasuke would get an invitation to Naruto's wedding, he thinks. He's stayed in Konoha because Taka are here - and especially because Jūgo is here. Making sure the other two settle in all right is important, but Jūgo needs him even more than they do. Jūgo needs him close by, to make sure nothing goes wrong.

If he'd been out of the village, he could have avoided what's likely to be the biggest social event the village has seen in a very long time, but while he's living here, he supposes he really can't refuse - Naruto would never let him hear the end of it.

It's not that it's not _worth_ it, living in the village, even though being around the people here is strange for him sometimes - he's doing right by Taka, for a start.

And being here with Jūgo is... something special. He hadn't realised, at first, that Jūgo had _that_ kind of thoughts about him, but the other two must have, because when they'd found out, Suigetsu had triumphantly demanded that Karin pay up on some manner of bet about how long it would take. They've apparently known for a while.

Karin had seemed a bit frostier toward him, and a lot snippier in conversation, for a while there, but she's past that now, and only complains if they wake her up when she wants to get a good night's sleep.

(It's not as though Sasuke is _trying_ to wake everybody up, he really isn't, but it's pretty hard to stay quiet when he has Jūgo on top of him, using all of that phenomenal strength in ways that come worryingly close to breaking their bed sometimes. It's amazing, and Sasuke really doesn't see how he could possibly be expected not to make a bit of noise when everything feels that good.)

Suigetsu just teases him about it every so often, but doesn't get offended if Sasuke doesn't respond. He certainly doesn't seem to mind, even if his sleep is as likely to be disturbed as Karin's is, if not more, since his bedroom is right next to Sasuke's. It's probably a minor miracle that he doesn't complain much, actually. Sasuke's decided he'd probably better not ask why.

But Jūgo... Jūgo is more and more open now about how he feels, and Sasuke's learned to accept that genuine and constant adoration. It's nice, really, to have Jūgo wrap his arms around him and hold him close while they talk; it feels as if some deep and aching need is being soothed a little more every time. Jūgo goes red when they kiss, too, and it's sweet and a little funny.

He's a genuinely good person, a kind person, in spite of the violent impulses he has to suppress, and he has never demanded anything from Sasuke, only asked, and even then, he never asks for more than Sasuke is willing to give.

It feels like happiness - real, genuine happiness, the kind Sasuke hadn't been certain he could feel anymore. Being with Jūgo is good for both of them and he knows it, and that makes things even better, discovering that he can find something like happiness, and that he can make Jūgo happy as well.

Jūgo doesn't look happy right now, though; he's looking at the invitation in Sasuke's hand uncertainly.

"They aren't really going to want us there, are they?"

Sasuke looks up at him, frowning a little. "Do you _want_ to go?" If Taka aren't invited, they won't have to attend something that Sasuke wishes he too had an excuse to avoid, but he doesn't want them kept away if they want to be there. Just about everyone in the village seems to be either directly invited or under the understanding that they're welcome to join in the celebration afterwards, and Sasuke doesn't want to see Taka excluded from that if it turns out they want to be there.

"You're going," Jūgo points out.

Sasuke nods. He's obliged to, which he supposes answers the question of whether or not Jūgo will want to attend, since Jūgo tends to prefer to be where Sasuke is.

"Well, I'm not," Karin declares, folding her arms with an irritated huff of breath. "I don't even care about weddings anyway. This is going to be boring."

Suigetsu just shrugs, not looking up from the carrots he's peeling. "Doesn't matter to me," is all he says. He's been especially quiet ever since the invitation for Sasuke had been delivered, and Sasuke's unsure of why. For some reason, Suigetsu is apparently feeling moody right now, so the best thing to do is probably wait for him to move on from that mood. It's rare for anything to get him down for long, really; even the parade of terrible things that have happened to him haven't destroyed his capacity for enthusiasm.

"Anyway, Sasuke, you're going to need a wedding gift," Karin points out. "That's important."

"Thought you didn't care about weddings?" Suigetsu asks absently. It doesn't sound as though he's putting any real effort into the jab, but disagreeing with Karin is something close to a reflex action for him, from what Sasuke's seen - he doesn't even have to think about it in order to do it.

"Shut up, Suigetsu." It's not a shout, barely even a snap, delivered just as reflexively as Suigetsu's question had been. "I don't, anyway, but if Sasuke's going to go it has to be right."

Sasuke stares blankly into the air in front of him. He doesn't know anything about wedding gifts. He doesn't know enough about Hinata to choose anything she might like, and what's he supposed to get Naruto anyway? This is, according to popular opinion, his best friend, and he still hasn't a clue what to give him. Naruto likes ramen, but that's probably a stupid gift. Naruto likes calling people his friends, but he's got a lot of those already, and what's Sasuke going to to do, capture a stranger and bring them along in a box for Naruto to let out and befriend?

There's a hand on his shoulder, fingers rubbing his upper arm comfortingly, bringing him back out of his thoughts. Blinking, Sasuke looks up at Jūgo, who wraps an arm around him soothingly.

"Why don't you choose it, Karin?" Jūgo suggests. "You might know what's right a bit better.  I've never seen a wedding present before."

"Well, I mean - I suppose, if nobody else is going to do it, I suppose I'm the only one here who has a hope of finding something suitable," Karin declares, adjusting her glasses.

"Thanks," Sasuke says, leaning a bit more heavily against Jūgo, relieved to have that problem solved so quickly. He can trust Karin to choose something that won't embarrass him, he thinks, so he doesn't have to worry about it anymore.

Suigetsu just sets aside the carrots and moves on to the radishes without commenting. Sasuke supposes he'll have to help with dinner soon, but not right away. For now, he can close his eyes and lean into Jūgo, and let all the thoughts buzzing around his head sink down, calm into something quieter and more relaxed. Jūgo's stroking his hair, now, and it feels nice - his drawn-together brows subside, and he can feel the tension leaving his face and body. The other two don't comment; they've seen this before, many times - both Jūgo calming Sasuke, and Sasuke calming Jūgo. By now, it's just part of how things go in this household.

Oddly enough, Karin joins Suigetsu on the food preparation, and they manage to get a significant amount of it done without any bickering at all. When Sasuke's in the kind of mood that needs this kind of relaxation, they can be reasonably quiet; a kindness Sasuke's never had to ask them for, but one he's very grateful to them for developing over this last year or so. It helps, it really does, and he supposes it proves they care about him in their own ways.

They always have cared in some way, of course, but this is different to traveling and fighting together as a team. Teamwork is survival, and survival is continuing to exist - but these little bits of consideration are about living, not just existing. After being alone for so long, and then rediscovering how kindness and warmth can feel, Sasuke's remembering just how important that is, to feel really and truly alive.

This isn't just about continuing to exist so he can reach a goal, or because he doesn't know what else to do with himself; this is about being glad to see them, being happy when something makes them happy, and grateful when they do good things for him. It's about looking forward to seeing Jūgo again when they're apart, and feeling at home and at peace when Jūgo holds him.

He hadn't thought he'd get to have something like this, but he's glad he does. The old memories aren't ever going to go away, not when photographic memory is a deep and intrinsic part of the power dwelling inside his eyes, but the weight of them is easier to bear with other memories around to support him and keep him from breaking down.

Just before a whispered disagreement between Karin and Suigetsu can flare up into anything louder, Sasuke opens his eyes, stands back up, and goes to join in the cooking. He's all right, now, and he can face just about anything.

 

* * *

 

Karin doesn't care about weddings. She'll say it as many times as she has to, as loudly as she has to. She certainly doesn't want to be a part of this one, even though the groom has such a familiar name, even though his chakra's like sunshine, even though everyone will be so happy. No, _especially_ because everyone will be so happy. She can't possibly belong in a gathering like that.

They're not like her, these people who've lived in Konoha all their lives. She'll feel _wrong_ if she goes - which she doesn't want to do, of course, so it's not as if it matters that nobody has invited her.

So what if it would involve being surrounded by more happiness than she's ever sensed in her life? She still doesn't care.

Sasuke's going, though, and he's given her the responsibility for finding a wedding gift he can take. It had better be a good one, not because she really cares about anything like that, just because if it's not a good one and anybody hears that she chose it, it'll look like she doesn't know how to choose gifts, and she can't have that.

It's not as though Sasuke has any idea, either. He wouldn't know what a woman would like her husband to own - or, for that matter, what a man would like a bride to have, since he's apparently never going to have a bride.

(She doesn't feel sorry for herself about that at all, of course, it's only Sakura she feels a little bit bad for, but done is done, and they just have to accept that Sasuke's choice is Jūgo. It could be worse. It could be Suigetsu. She's not sure she could have endured Suigetsu's smugness if that had been the case.)

The only logical choice here, then, to find a perfect gift, is Karin.

She knows exactly what she wants, too. It will be expensive, but quality costs money, and Sasuke can't give them anything substandard, can he? And he's going with Jūgo, so it has to be enough of a gift to be from both of them.

With all the vigour of some general leading her army to war, Karin marches off to find the store she has in mind. At least the village has something like this, so it's not a completely uncivilised mess of a place.

Browsing through rows of perfume bottles, five minutes later, Karin is deep in thought. Hinata seems like such an innocent, so nothing that smells too sensual will suit her. At the same time, she'll be leaving behind a maidenly life and becoming a wife, so it can't be too girlish. Something refined, elegant, a little delicate, and just a little sexy... that's what she needs. And it's just as well Karin is spending Sasuke's money, or she might have balked at the price, especially once she adds in the cologne - because Hinata deserves a husband who smells of something other than sweat and ramen.

With the scents bought, bagged up, and ready to go, Karin turns to head home, only to spot Hinata walking down the street. She hopes Hinata's Byakugan isn't constantly on, or else these gifts aren't really going to be a surprise, and she's even more nervous when Hinata spots her, hurries over, and tells her in that ridiculously sweet way of hers that she very much hopes Karin will be at the wedding.

It's so nice, and sisterly, and friendly, and Karin can't bring herself to say anything snappish. She manages something that expresses a vague willingness to attend but an uncertainty about whether she'll be busy on the day, among other bits of noncommittal small talk, and then she's just standing there, watching, as Hinata heads off again.

Damn it, now she's going to have to find a present on her own behalf, too!

And it isn't even as though she'd wanted to go in the first place.

...She wonders what she ought to wear. Something pretty, obviously, but what...?

 

* * *

 

There's so much rushing around - everybody's so busy with arranging things, and Hinata's getting used to seeing her friends trying to hide all manner of things from her. A great many things are supposed to be surprises, apparently, so she doesn't poke or pry into them, because she knows her friends would be disappointed if their surprises were spoiled.

She does feel a little bad, though, that they're  working so hard and she can't do anything to help them, or even hear them out if they want to vent about it.

The only thing she can do is be welcoming, and make sure everybody knows how much it will mean to her that they're part of this. There are even going to be people coming from other villages, so she can't express her appreciation to any of them yet, but she will when they arrive. They're coming for Naruto, she knows, and she's glad of it; he's touched hearts all over the shinobi world, and now the people who've come to care about him will show that by attending his wedding.

Their wedding... it's going to be wonderful. It can't be anything but wonderful, not when so many people are helping to make it even more special. This is going to be a day that Hinata will remember for the rest of her life, and she gets to share it not just with Naruto, but with everyone they both care for, and everyone for whom Naruto is a hero and a precious treasure of the village and the world.

When she'd heard him talk, once, about how he'd befriended the Tailed Beasts, she'd been glad to learn that there was still a little of them inside him, in some kind of chakra meeting place. She's still glad of that; it means they could, theoretically, be aware that the human they'd befriended is getting married, without all the panic that might come from their actually showing up physically. To say nothing of the difficulty in finding room for them, too...

Right now, Hinata would gladly share this excitement with the whole world, and judging by the commotion going on, it feels a little as though she's going to.

The wedding will be beautiful, and she's looking forward to it without any hesitation at all.

Her excitement lasts, despite a few minor issues, right up until the wedding day itself - which is every bit as perfect as she'd imagined.

Her friends and family are around her, and there's Naruto, all delight and enthusiasm, and it feels as though everything in the world is the best it could ever be, and nothing could ever be wrong again. 

And then, when the wedding itself is over and done with, and she's alone with Naruto, there are no clouds marring her conscience or her happiness as they disappear into the privacy of their wedding night. That's not to say it all goes smoothly, of course - there's a lot of awkward fumbling, embarrassed giggling, and general clumsiness, but they're together, and they love each other, and that's the only thing that matters.

 

* * *

 

Suigetsu had seen a little of the festivities, though not the wedding itself, and he doesn't mind at all. It had been hard enough as it was to keep out of sight of any foreign dignitaries who might remember him and express some manner of noisy and violent grudge against him.

But Hinata's married, now. To _Naruto_ , of all people. He hadn't realised when they'd met that she was already that deeply invested in somebody, and it had come as something of a disappointment.

Now, though, walking Konoha's darkened streets with his hands in his pockets, staring up at the twinkling stars so far overhead, he wonders what that really means for his hopes. Technically, he supposes, getting married probably ought to put Hinata 'off-limits' or some such nonsense, but he's certain he hadn't been imagining the way she'd been responding when he'd flirted with her. Naruto might be Hinata's husband now, but he doesn't own her or anything; she's still free to decide what she wants to do with her life.

Maybe she _does_ see herself as committed in a way that means no other dalliances; if so, he'll wish her well and get on with his life. If not, though... he doesn't see any reason not to try for a little fling.

True, there's the part where Naruto is immensely popular and incredibly powerful, and could make life very difficult - as possibly very short - for Suigetsu if provoked, but what he doesn't know won't hurt him. True, there's the part where people might call that kind of immoral or something, but Suigetsu is a shinobi, and he's been learning to sneak, steal, and kill since his earliest days; he fails to see how a bit of illicit sex is any worse morally than all the assassinations.

So, this might be the end of it, or it might not.

He'll just have to wait and see.

 

* * *

 

The wedding hadn't been _too_ much of a hardship for Sasuke; it had been noisy and crowded, but he'd put up with it, and retreating to quieter spaces frequently with Jūgo to ensure neither of them were pushed beyond the limits of their endurance had done a lot to help. Nobody had forced him to do much talking; it had been enough to return greetings in kind, give brief responses to people's observations, and then indicate, with a few suitable changes in stance and expression, that he'd seen somebody else he needed to greet.

With everybody else so busy talking to each other, none of them had really seemed to mind if their conversations with him were cut short - they'd just moved on to talking to someone else, generally someone a little more prepared to be conversational.

And once the wedding itself had ended, and Sasuke had made sure to be seen at the celebrations afterwards, he'd left as soon as he'd thought he could get away with it, heading home. At home, there's the blessed quiet and privacy he prefers, and he can curl up with Jūgo and relax again.

There will probably still be people partying all night, and some of them well into the next day, but Sasuke's not going to be one of them. It's over, and he supposes he's glad Naruto is happy, and now they can all get on with their lives without the threat of a giant party hanging over them.

Some days later, Sasuke gets a thank-you note for the gift he'd brought, the one Karin had chosen for him. He'd presented it, in its box, and seen it placed with all the other presents, but somebody had clearly recorded who'd given what for the purposes of expressing the appropriate amount of gratitude.

Reading the note and seeing it described and praised there is, incidentally, the first time Sasuke finds out what it is that he'd given the happy couple.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now featuring fanart for this chapter! Linked with permission, and my gratitude!  
> [Jūgo and Sasuke attend the wedding.](https://www.deviantart.com/jaynehart/art/JuuSasu-TL-770076219)


	5. Capacity For Regret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's life after the wedding, for Hinata and those around her, and a lot to think about.

Hinata is happy. Her honeymoon is wonderful, and so is settling down into a home with Naruto. It's not a large house, but it's theirs, and that makes it special. A not-insignificant amount of the furnishings come from wedding gifts given by friends, and so it's like every room is filled with mementos of love and friendship. This place isn't like the home of her childhood, filled with members of her own clan, but it takes her a little while to see this as anything but a novelty. It does feel a little odd, sometimes, not to be able to simply walk down a hallway if she wants to speak to her sister, or to never come across clusters of Hyūga consulting with her father in hushed voices.

She has to go further from the house if she wants to train, too, and she does want to keep up her training; she'd vowed to walk beside Naruto, and if she wants to keep doing that, she can't allow herself to become weak from lack of practice.

She's getting better and better at managing the cooking and cleaning for her very own house, too, and that had also taken some getting used to. In her childhood home, she hadn't needed to be the one doing all the housework, and suddenly practically all of it is her responsibility.

She could ask Naruto to help, perhaps, but he's so busy, and she doesn't want to admit that she's not up to what countless wives throughout recorded history have done without a shred of complaint. Kurenai-sensei lives alone with little Mirai, and no husband to help out even if she were to want help, and she still manages, so Hinata feels she really ought to be just as competent as that.

Still, she _is_ happy, even when she's mopping the floor, because it's her floor to mop, and it's her home to look after, and she's proving that she can do every bit of it. Life is so different, now, but it's the life she'd been dreaming of.

 

* * *

 

Suigetsu isn't all that happy, really, not anymore; Sasuke's left the village again, with Jūgo beside him, to take some kind of break from everything. There are still things Sasuke wants to see out there, apparently, and so he's taken the chance to go looking for them. And now Suigetsu and Karin are living in the same house, without him, and only their promise to Sasuke not to fight too much stands between that house and destruction.

Sasuke's promised he'll be back soon, so all they can really do is wait for him, but its their own fault, and they know it.

Karin had gone through one of her weird little mood-swings about whether or not she'd wanted to come along, and Suigetsu had been promised a chance to try out a brand-new sword design that Tenten was bringing in, and in any case they'd both come to the conclusion that travel with Jūgo and Sasuke these days was likely to involve a lot of huddling in one tent while those two expressed their affections audibly in another.

Which is fine, really, if they want to turn their antics into some kind of travelling entertainment for each other more power to them, but even though Suigetsu and Karin don't enjoy agreeing with each other, they can definitely agree that they don't need to be there for that.

Of course, the magnanimous urging for Jūgo and Sasuke to go and spend some time together and have fun had only really lasted until they were out of sight, before Suigetsu had regretted it, and he's pretty sure Karin might have begun to regret it even sooner than that. Still, done is done, and it'd been too late to try and follow the other two.

The solution to the current problem, for Karin and Suigetsu, has been to have as little to do with each other as is humanly possible while living under the same roof. Without ever saying a word about it, they've developed an unofficial schedule in which the only times they spend indoors together involve eating or sleeping, and that limited contact is enough to keep the peace for now.

It's only a shame that Sasuke isn't here to see them being mature about it.

Karin is curled up on the couch, reading a book, when Suigetsu heads out to go find something else to do, as far away from her as possible. He has no more work today, so he can't occupy himself with that, and he's already done plenty of training. For lack of any better ideas, he wanders through the streets, watching people, listening to them, speculating about their secrets based on whatever little clues he can detect. It's getting late, so most people are heading indoors; if they haven't already had dinner, they're going to go do that, and the rest of their evenings are likely to be spent in the company of family.

He hears the laughter before he sees them, and melts into an alley to avoid being spotted.

From there, he watches as Naruto and Hinata walk past, hand in hand; he watches as they look around to see if anybody's there, though they don't see him; and he watches as Naruto kisses Hinata with all the clumsy enthusiasm of an overgrown puppy. Naruto seems a whole lot less hostile when he doesn't know there's anyone watching him; the way he beams at Hinata makes Suigetsu wonder, a little, if this is what all these others in Konoha are thinking of when they talk about him. He's not like this when Taka are around, that's for sure.

Maybe Suigetsu _is_ wasting his time by thinking about Hinata, he thinks. Maybe he ought to try to move on already - find some girl who's up for a quick fling and get all this bullshit out of his system.

Practically everyone his age in Konoha appears to have found their sweetheart already, though, and sweetheart is definitely the right word, because most of them are nauseatingly sentimental about it. To hear them talk, most of them have known who it'd be since they were kids, too. They'd met as teens at the very latest, and then begun to fall for each other.

He doesn't know how that works. The years they'd spent meeting each other, and flirting, and having fun, he'd spent locked in a tank, anticipating the next round of agonising experiments. Maybe he's just missed his chance entirely by never learning how it's done? Even before his capture, he'd never really noticed girls as anything but fellow shinobi - people to hang around, spar with, compare weapons with, and fight beside. He'd been so focused on his goal that he hadn't stopped to think about that kind of thing -

\- and now he doesn't even have that goal. He'd lost it, during the Infinite Tsukuyomi, when he'd seen everything he could possibly have wanted and everything he'd lost, only to wake with it all gone again, knowing that no matter how hard he might try to reach his dreams, they'd never look anything like that.

Without Sasuke, who'd brought the team back here, he's not sure there'd be anything left of him at all.

He isn't like the people here, and he never will be.

Suigetsu bites back a sigh, knowing he needs to stay silent, unless he wants the happy couple to realise they have company. The brief encounters he's had since the war seem worlds apart from all this romance business that everybody here is so busy with; he'd dismiss it as just another bit of Konoha silliness, but his brother had told him, growing up, that their parents had loved each other a lot, that it'd been obvious to anyone who saw them. So, it's not just a Konoha thing.

It can happen to all kinds of people. Just not him, apparently.

He turns and slips away, further down the alley, and finds himself navigating a twisting mess of poorly-planned streets that deposit him in a part of Konoha he doesn't entirely recognise. There's a figure swathed in bulky clothing sitting on a bench, watching the moths swirl in the glow of a street-light, and Suigetsu approaches that figure, meaning to ask where he is.

Once he's closer, he realises who this is - Aburame Shino, one of the people he'd been told about along the way, in the earliest months of his time in the village. He'd had Shino pointed out to him, as one of Sasuke's former classmates, but he hadn't thought much more on him than that.

Now, though, he comes closer. The guy's wearing sunglasses, even at night, which is a bit weird, but there's probably some reason for it. Maybe, since he's a bug-user, he has creepy faceted fly eyes, and needs to hide them? It's unlikely, but there are stranger kinds of ninja out there than that.

"Hey, Shino, isn't it? Mind if I sit here?"

Shino looks up at him, and from what little of his face shows, Suigetsu would guess he's startled. "You know my name."

"...Yeah...?"

"Yes. You can sit there, as long as you don't disturb the moths. That's because they only breed three nights out of a year, and if they're disturbed, they won't breed."

Suigetsu snorts, flopping gracelessly down beside Shino onto the bench. "Sucks for them, huh? Anything goes wrong, and they miss their chance."

"Yes. That's why they all come out here, even though it's risky."

"Risky?"

"The bats know they breed on nights like this one, and they come out to hunt them."

"Huh." Suigetsu looks up at the moths. "You think it's worth it? They risk their lives just to get some action?"

"If they don't take that risk, they won't find a mate, and they'll die soon anyway. If they do, they might die sooner, or they might succeed."

"And if humans don't take risks for what they want, they'll die anyway, too," Suigetsu muses. "Only difference is they get longer to regret it."

"Insects have no capacity for regret," Shino points out.

"Lucky them." Suigetsu shrugs, and gives Shino a sidelong look. "Hey, is it true you're full of bugs?"

"My parasitic insects live inside me, yes."

"...Do they tickle?" Suigetsu shivers. "All those little legs hurrying around under your skin?"

"No."

"...Well, that's good. I turn into water, y'know."

"Interesting."

"Am I boring you?" Suigetsu asks him, with another sidelong look.

"No. That _is_ interesting to me. That's because I've never met anyone who turned into water."

"Well, I've never met anybody whose body was full of beetles, so I guess we're even." Suigetsu snorts. "Do they look at you weirdly for it? Do they call you a freak, or things like that?"

"They don't look at me," Shino says, his otherwise flat voice actually sounding a little melancholy. "They don't call me anything."

"...Huh. That's not really any better than the other way, I guess." Suigetsu gnaws absently at his lower lip, teeth piercing it smoothly and bloodlessly, sending water spilling down his chin and chest. The water draws itself back inside his body as his lip forms up again, and he realises Shino's watching him.

"That's a useful jutsu. Why? Because you must be very difficult to hurt."

Shino has an odd speech pattern, answering his own questions, explaining things out of nowhere, but Suigetsu's getting used to it already. It still conveys basically the same sentiments as the things somebody else might say, just phrased a little differently.

Now, though, Suigetsu looks away. "Difficult. Not impossible." He pushes away memories of Otogakure that threaten to rise up and choke him, and looks back at Shino. "Hey, Shino, what d'you look like without the glasses?" He's not sure why he asks, but it might be because jumping on any stray bit of curiosity is better than letting the conversation veer into dangerous territory like how he can be hurt and who's managed to do that to him. He doesn't feel like spending the rest of tonight with his brain all fogged up as it tries to stuff cotton wool around all those sharp-edged memories.

"I look like myself, without glasses. I'll show you, though. Why? Because you remembered my name." Shino reaches up, pulls away the sunglasses, and there he is, blinking slightly, with very normal, very human eyes.

"You're right. Yourself, without the glasses." Suigetsu laughs. "Thanks." He pauses. "Do you wanna tell me a bit more about those moths?" Anything's better than listening to his own thoughts right now, and Shino's not bad company, really; his presence doesn't _push_ at Suigetsu, make him feel as though he has to act any particular way just to get along. If he were to act a little oddly, Shino probably wouldn't care at all.

"Yes." Shino puts his glasses back on, and holds out a finger, waiting for a moth to land on it. "This is a male. Some moths have very little sexual dimorphism, but the antennae on this species are very different depending on sex, and the males are visibly smaller than the females."

"Huh. Can you get one of the females over here to show me the difference?"

In the end, even once the two moths are side by side, Suigetsu can't see much of a difference between them, but he does take an odd kind of satisfaction in seeing the two of them get together. In this case, a bit of interference hasn't done them any harm at all. He listens to Shino's explanations about the habits of different kinds of moths, which include details he'll probably never need to know again in his life, most of which he'll have forgotten by tomorrow, but it's kind of soothing to focus on something like this and push away all of his troubles for a little while.

And maybe the moths have got the right idea, really; a bit of risk is worth it, if it gets you what you want, because succeed or fail, you're going to die sooner or later anyway.

(He would still prefer that it be 'later,' though, at least in his own case. Despite his unhappiness, despite all the things he's trying not to brood on, Suigetsu's a little too attached to his life to want it snuffed out anytime soon.)

Suigetsu's still not any more certain about what he's going to do, but at least he's a little more relaxed about it now. For tonight, at least, that will have to do.

 

* * *

 

Hinata still blushes when she thinks anybody has seen her being especially affectionate with Naruto, or when her friends tease her about her married life, but she's used to that, even if it's embarrassing, and it doesn't seem as though it'll stop anytime soon. There doesn't even have to be anyone watching for her to start blushing when Naruto looks at her like that, and reaches out for her, or kisses her, or shows her in countless other ways just how much he loves her.

And she does love him, of course, enough that she feels like she might burst with happiness when they're together. She could spend all her time with him and count herself perfectly content with that, she thinks.

Not that she does spend all her time with him, of course - work keeps them apart sometimes, and they both have social lives that don't always include each other. She doesn't want to be the kind of person who would just forget about her friends because she has a husband now.

Her sensei and her former teammates, especially, get some of her time even now; today, the team are minding Mirai while Kurenai-sensei gets herself some new clothes, just to give her a little bit of peace and quiet while she shops. It's not any kind of hardship, except possibly for Akamaru, since that's who Mirai is devoting most of her attention to right now.

While Mirai climbs all over Akamaru, Kiba tells Hinata and Shino about all manner of things, with very little pause for breath. He tends to dominate these conversations, since neither Hinata nor Shino are particularly loud. She doesn't hold it against him, though; most of Kiba's family are like that, so if he'd been quiet, he'd never have got a word in edgewise.

She does, however, make a point of asking Shino what he's been doing lately, while Kiba stops talking long enough to drink something.

His answer, that he's been watching moths with Suigetsu, startles her immensely. The part about the moths is perfectly normal for Shino, but the idea that he's watched them with somebody else around is unusual, to say the least.

"He watched moths with you?" she repeats, inviting him to elaborate.

"Yes, because he was there when I was watching moths and decided to join me."

"Aw man, Shino, did you go on about moth-wing leopard-options or whatever again?" Kiba asks, scoffing a little and elbowing Shino lightly.

"They're not leopard-options, Kiba, because that isn't a term used in entomology," Shino says, patiently. "It's _lepidoptera_ , and he asked me to tell him all about them. I didn't have time to tell him everything, though, because it's wise for shinobi to avoid sleep deprivation unless necessary. He remembered my name," he adds, this statement weighted as though it's highly significant to him.

" _I_ remember your name," Kiba protests, sounding injured.

"You could hardly avoid it, because we were on the same team for long enough that forgetting it would be very inconsiderate."

"Right, because I'm not inconsiderate. Right, guys? ...Hey, _c'mon_ , don't look at me like that, I'm _not_!"

As their discussion is derailed by Mirai's requests for ice-cream, Hinata finds herself thinking about what Shino had said. A lot of people do tend to forget him, or disregard him, and he's more sensitive about it than people think he is. She's glad that Suigetsu had taken the time to talk to him, and listen to him, because Shino deserves to be listened to more often.

It makes her think more highly of Suigetsu, too. She hasn't seen him for a while, not since her wedding, but every now and then she hears mentions of him, and it seems that he's still working away in the village, talking to people, being funny sometimes and maybe a little strange, but more and more part of daily life in Konoha.

She hopes he's happy, hopes that his life is treating him well, because he's a nice person and life hasn't been kind to him up until this point from what she'd gleaned of his story. He's probably missing Sasuke, though, and Jūgo, since she's heard they've gone off to travel outside of the village. They're his friends, after all, so it must feel a little lonely to be without them.

Beyond that, her thoughts of him are only fleeting, until the day she sees a head of white hair in front of her in the line outside the bakery. It's always busy at this time of morning, busy enough that there's generally a queue just to get in. At the first glance, her eyes skim past him; at the second, she realises it's Suigetsu.

Hinata tries to focus on all the things she'd been planning to buy, but now she's wondering what he's getting here too. He'd mock-threatened, once, upon hearing how much she liked this bakery's cinnamon rolls, to buy forty or so of them all at once and give her all of them, just to see what she'd do. It had been a silly little joke, but she's remembering it now, and the way he'd grinned while he'd said it.

The queue moves forward, and Suigetsu disappears inside the bakery. When he comes out, he leans against the wall, holding his bag in one arm while he slips his change into a pocket. He looks up, sees her, and grins.

"Hi, Hinata!" He sounds so happy to see her.

Hinata smiles back at him, enters the bakery, and pays for her selection, her mind awhirl with thoughts. When she comes back out, he's still there, waiting for her.

"It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"Yes, you've been busy?"

"Oh, you know." He pulls a funny little face. "Gotta be doing something, right?"

Their words are so innocuous, but Hinata finds herself acutely, _horribly_ conscious of the way his shirt fits around his shoulders, and how the neck of it hangs open enough that she can see a little bit of his chest, all lit up by the morning sun. She hardly remembers any part of what she's saying, later, aside from the bit where she slips up and agrees to taste the custard buns she's bought, just as a favour to him, and tell him next time they meet if they're good. Just so he knows whether it's worth buying them, of course.

It's still such an ordinary conversation, but she's as good as promised to see him again soon, and some strange and giddy little feeling inside her is getting excited at the idea.

Even once he's gone, she's shaken by it all, and walks home in a daze, castigating herself for the terrible things she's thinking about.

She'd thought this would _stop_ once she was married, that promising herself to Naruto would give her traitorous body the message that it was only Naruto it was supposed to take any interest in. She'd thought her vows would be the end of it, that it would fix everything that had gone wrong in her head.

It seems, though, that it's not that simple, not for her.

She loves her husband, deeply and truly. She really does.

But Suigetsu still inspires a degree of lust unlike anything she's felt before, even now. It hasn't gone away, and she has no idea what she's going to do about it.


	6. Nobody Needs To Know

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata and Suigetsu do things they almost certainly shouldn't.

Suigetsu's unsure of how things have reached the point where 'avoiding a pointless fight with Karin' also means 'staying out of the house most of the time' - it had made sense to ensure that only one of them is home at any given time, but for some reason the one that's at home always seems to be Karin, and the one who gets to try to find things to do elsewhere always seems to be Suigetsu. It's a bit unfair, really.

Still, it is what it is, and he's out and about again, looking for something to do. If Karin had thought about it, she might have realised that leaving Suigetsu to wander around and make his own fun isn't necessarily the best idea, but she's claimed she has medical notes to write, and she's not above reading her own notes aloud while she writes to get him out of the house. It's brutally effective, even if the deluge of medical jargon tends to mean that Suigetsu winds up somewhere random in Konoha, with little idea how he's got there, his mind gradually piecing itself back together.

This time, he becomes aware that he's just standing outside a shop, watching the customers argue over the last of... whatever is in those pretty yellow packages. And blue packages. And yellow and blue together. They seem pretty mad at each other. The customers, not the packages. Or the colours. Those get along fine. Probably.

One of the customers slaps another, and they both get thrown out, while Suigetsu stands there watching. He doesn't recognise either of them.

More customers leave, but they don't seem so mad, and they're actually carrying things.

The shop appears to be on the verge of closing. There's a very stressed woman inside.

Suigetsu wanders a little closer, and she sees him, and hurries up to him.

"Excuse me, sir, but you know where Uzumaki Naruto lives, don't you? Please? I promised to have someone deliver this there, but after everything that's happened here, there's no way any of my staff will have time. Could you do me a huge favour and drop it off to him?"

"Huh?" Suigetsu blinks, takes a moment to process this, and nods. "Oh, sure."

"Thank you!" She presses a parcel into his arms, along with a small payment that she insists he take for doing her a favour like this, and points him in the right direction, before hurrying back inside to take care of things that must be very important, given all the urgency in there.

Since she's paid him, and he has the parcel, he supposes he really has to deliver the thing, now. If he doesn't, there'll probably be trouble, and he doesn't feel like that kind of thing right now. It's not even likely to be the fun kind of trouble, which is the sort he's usually more willing to start. At least he's worked out which house it is, even if he doesn't particularly want to see Naruto today. That could be trouble, too, and still not the fun kind.

Might as well get this over with, though. He knocks on the door, and waits.

It's not Naruto who answers. It's Hinata, her hair up in a bun, wearing an apron, looking as though she's been interrupted in the middle of cleaning. She looks very startled to see him there, and he's aware enough now to watch her cheeks go a little pink.

"Um - hello, Suigetsu?"

"Lady at the shop asked me to deliver this." He holds up the parcel in explanation.

"Oh! Thank you. I've been waiting for that, and I was beginning to wonder if I'd have to go back tomorrow for it." She takes the parcel as he offers it, but stops to look more closely at his face, and he's not sure why. "Are you all right?"

"...I guess?" He shrugs.

"Would you like to come inside? Maybe for a cup of tea, since you did bring this all this way?"

"...Thanks?" Mystified, he follows her inside, and finds himself being seated in a room so clean it practically sparkles.

Hinata bustles around, getting some tea ready, while Suigetsu looks around the room. Not everything matches, but the things that don't match look as though they've been displayed proudly all the same. Probably gifts, he thinks. He accepts the tea, when it comes, with a thank-you, blows on it to cool it, and takes a few slow sips. As he does so, he begins to realise why she must have invited him in; he must have still looked as though something was _wrong_ somehow, after spacing out the way he had earlier. She's perceptive, it seems, sharp enough to spot things like that and kind enough to want to help somebody who might be having difficulties.

And now he's in her house. He hadn't planned to be here, not _really_ , not in any _serious_ way - idle thoughts don't count, of course - but now he's here. He's spent enough time thinking about her that this feels more significant than it probably is. It'd be rude to do anything, wouldn't it, after she's been nice enough to bring him inside and help him when he hadn't been at his best? But his gaze follows her around the room, and he knows she's aware of it. It seems to be flustering her - she keeps sneaking glances back at him, and her cheeks are quite pink.

She doesn't look upset, though, he thinks. Maybe that means he has a chance? He's got his mind working just fine again now, so he can think it through, and work that out. He'll never know unless he asks, though.

Suigetsu stands, heading over to the sink to put his empty teacup into it, and looks over at her, standing less than an arm-length away from him. "Been cleaning?"

"Yes?"

"You got a little bit of stuff on your hair, y'know." Not exactly the smoothest line ever uttered, but it's true, and he's just uncertain enough not to want to say this directly. What if she gets mad? What if she tells her husband, and he gets mad?

Hinata goes red, and starts patting at her hair, trying to find what he's mentioned. "Where? What is it?"

"Bit of cobweb. Here, I can just...?" A pause, and then he reaches out, pulling the bit of cobweb off her hair and showing her. "There, no big deal."

"Thank you," she says, still red, and gives him a sideways glance that he's not quite sure how to read.

"So, uh... Hinata..." He's trying to make his voice sound casual, just joking around, in case things go badly and he needs the deniability. "I hear you've got this really cool punch, something nobody else can do. If I, like, kissed you or something, that something you'd use on me?" He adds a little laugh, waiting to see if he's going to have to play this off as just wondering how far he'd need to go before he has to worry about her attack.

The effect is immediate - Hinata goes bright red, and stares up at him, eyes very wide. "If _you_ \- if _I_ \- n-no, I wouldn't -" Her voice is nearly a squeak, and she's actually leaning closer to him -

\- which is all the encouragement he needs, really. "Okay, but remember, you promised," he tells her, playfully, before leaning in and pressing his lips to hers. There's a moment of stillness, and then her arms are around him, pulling him against her, and he has one hand on her cheek, the other around her waist, their kiss rapidly becoming a whole lot more intense than he'd expected, almost more than he could ever have hoped. He has to be careful with his teeth, when he kisses, but he already knows that, and he manages to avoid causing any damage, even when his tongue brushes against hers and she starts making soft, eager little noises that just about drive him crazy with the sound.

He has her pressed against her own fridge, now, and from the way she holds onto him there's no way she wants him to stop anytime soon. Behind her back, his hand unfastens her apron, tugging it away, and he breaks their kiss long enough to look down at her, before leaning in, and whispering, close to her ear, " _Fuck_ , you're _gorgeous_ , you know that?"

From the way she responds, those words are every bit as good for her as all the little sounds she's making are for him. Between her eagerness and his, it doesn't take much before he's on his knees in front of her, easing down her shorts and the underwear beneath, and leaning in to kiss his way up her thigh as she tangles a hand in his hair. Looking up, he sees her biting her lip a little, and grins up at her before writing her name across her clit with his tongue until she's whimpering and leaning heavily against the fridge just to stay standing.

Her fingers clench in his hair, over and over, and her legs are splayed as wide as they can be while she's upright - one of Suigetsu's hands on her hip is his contribution to helping her keep her balance, while his other hand is fingering her in counterpoint to the work of his mouth. He can hear her practically sobbing with pleasure already, and it's not long before he's making her hold back a cry that would have told every single neighbour around that it's not the cooking she's doing in the kitchen today.

He rises, grinning all the more, painfully hard at the way she looks now, with her hair having come untied, panting, a blissed-out smile on her face, and he pulls her into another kiss, his fingers still toying with her. For all she's still trembling a little, the hand that reaches out to stroke him through his pants is steady, and Suigetsu moans into that kiss.

She's unfastening his belt and unzipping his pants, freeing his cock while he kisses her jaw and her neck, forcing himself not to nip or scratch with his teeth, for all he'd love to be a little rougher. "Do you - wanna -" But he can't manage more of a question than that, not with Hinata's hand on his cock, and the ' _yes_ ' she whispers is emphatic enough that he doesn't even try to ask another.

It's her hand that guides him in, and it's Hinata that kisses him wildly, fiercely, as she wraps her thighs around his hips and lets him hold her up, and then he's practically slamming into her, thrust after thrust, fucking her against her own damn fridge until the ornaments on top nearly fall off with the shaking they're getting.

She's coming again, tightening around him, head pressed back against the fridge while she's clearly trying not to scream the house down, and Suigetsu does his best to stifle his own sounds, biting back a cry that would have betrayed them both as he comes.

His legs are shaky, but so are hers, and even once he lowers her to the ground, they have to cling to each other for a while to stay upright, panting, hearts racing.

Hinata's stunning most of the time, Suigetsu thinks, a little dazed in the best possible way, but she looks even better with her hair a mess and her skin flushed after sex.

"You're amazing, holy shit," he murmurs, with a shaky laugh, and helps her pull her pants back up before fastening his own.

He sees it happening even as it begins - a realisation dawning in her eyes, the start of guilt and shame, and curses himself for a fool. Of _course_ she'd be guilty, she's married, and the nicest girl he's met. She has a whole lot more conscience to have to deal with than he does.

He doesn't want her feeling bad, and on the very selfish, pure self-preservation level, he doesn't want her running to Naruto to confess what she's done, because that could have very, _very_ bad results for Suigetsu, especially when he doesn't even have Sasuke around right now to help him out. True, this is probably something he should have thought of before fucking the wife of the probable next Hokage rather than afterwards, but he can't _un_ -fuck her, can he?

Maybe he could put enough of the blame on her that she'd be too ashamed to talk, but that'd be a _really evil_ thing to do to her, and might not work anyway, which'd make it cruelty without any actual benefit. He probably can't charm her into being okay with it in under five minutes, either. That means honesty's really the only option he's got going for him.

"Hey, Hinata, this isn't your fault, okay? You didn't, like, drag me in and seduce me or anything. We just got carried away is all. I hate seeing you feel all guilty over a stupid little accident, but... y'know... if you tell Naruto he might actually kill me, so I'm kinda hoping you won't do that." He laughs nervously, watching her closely. "You've been really nice to me and I like you a lot for it and we did something a bit stupid, but you're not a bad person for it, I swear."

She still looks like she's about to cry, but she's listening, and Suigetsu takes that as a good sign.

"I'm not gonna tell anybody about this, so nobody's gonna find out on account of me. You're safe, okay? I won't tell. And then nobody'll get hurt over it. We can just... pretend this never happened, maybe. Like when you agree to forget something a friend said on account of it coming out wrong?" He pauses. "I'm gonna go, now, unless you want me to stay, but I'm getting the feeling you'd rather be left alone now."

Hinata nods, eyes filling with tears.

"'m sorry, Hinata, really. Didn't mean to do anything that'd make you cry. And... if you need to tell him, okay, but I hope you'll warn me first, so I know to run for my life." With that, he turns to retreat, leaving her in her kitchen. Behind him, he can hear her beginning to cry, but he has no idea what he can do about it - his being there is what led to the thing she's upset about, so staying to try to comfort her might just make things worse. She probably never wants to see him again, he thinks, and that's fair enough.

"Don't go." Hinata's voice is tiny, but it stops him in his tracks.

Suigetsu hurries back over to where she's sitting on the floor, and kneels beside her. He's not expecting the part where she reaches out to cling to him and cry into his shoulder, not after what they just did, but he supposes she's changed her mind about wanting to be alone, and he's the only person she can show her emotions around without having to tell them what she's done.

He holds her lightly, perfectly chaste now, until the crying stops, and then lets go.

When she gets up and walks away, he doesn't follow; he just listens, until he hears running water. She's taking a shower, which is good; she'll probably feel better after that. He washes up the cup he'd been using, and everything else, drying them and putting them away, before quietly leaving the house. He's done all he really can do, he thinks; now, maybe she'll be able to put some distance between herself and that feeling of guilt.

If he feels guilty about anything, himself, it's not the part where he just fucked a married woman; it's the part where he's realising she's likely to suffer emotionally on account of it.

But... she'd _wanted_ him, just as much as he'd wanted her, she'd been enthusiastic about it, and the sex had been _great_ , so... she's allowed to regret it in spite of having had fun; he's not going to argue with her about that, and if she wants to never see him again she's entitled to it. All he can do is look after himself, now, and that means being ready to run for it if he thinks Naruto's going to find out and try to kill him.

Suigetsu's vaguely aware that he _ought_ to feel guiltier, probably, but he hasn't done anything he'd really hate himself for. There are lines even he wouldn't want to cross, things he couldn't excuse so readily, but this isn't one of them.

He probably still smells of Hinata, which is awkward; just to be on the safe side, he steps into the gap between two houses and reverts to liquid form amid a little extra water. When he forms up again, he's clean enough for now, and he'll be cleaner still once he's had a chance to wash properly.

It might have been a surprise to anybody who's ever watched him swinging a sword in battle, but he can be discreet, if the situation calls for it, and this one definitely does.

An hour later, he's entirely clean, safely at home, and lying on his bed, reading a cheap horror book whose efforts at scary are so forced that Suigetsu finds it completely hilarious. It's been written by someone who doesn't even know the tensile strength of human viscera, too, so all that gore just makes him laugh. What a big, bad, _scary_ killer the heroes are trying to escape, _really_? Suigetsu's seen worse than all of it. In some cases, he's actually _done_ worse.

Admittedly, this might say things about him that aren't very flattering, perhaps, but he'd grown up in Kirigakure; this sort of thing had been normal there. Among other reasons, of course - but in general, he's aware he's not exactly a nice little Konoha civilian boy, to be reduced to nightmares by some description of a killer with his very own spooky little murder forest.

He can sleep soundly after reading that, and does so.

 

* * *

 

Hinata still can't believe herself, really - how could she have done something so _terrible_? She shouldn't even have invited Suigetsu into the house, not with the kinds of thoughts she'd been having about him, but he'd looked as though something had been wrong, and she'd wanted to help him. And then they'd done... _all that_ , and the worst part is that even when she's feeling hollow and horror-stricken with guilt, she can't stop remembering how it'd felt.

At the time, she hadn't even thought about morals, or her marriage, or anything except how much she'd wanted him and how good he'd made her feel. She should have stopped to think. She'd felt bad about her fantasies, but she'd told herself they were just thoughts. Thoughts she hadn't known how to deal with, yes, but just thoughts. Maybe if she'd held onto her shame a little tighter, she might have avoided what had happened today?

What they'd _done_ , today. It hadn't just _happened_. Rain, she tells herself, just _happens_. Sex is something one _does_.

She still doesn't know how to handle this, and she can hear an inner voice calling herself every vile name under the sun. She's betrayed Naruto, and... she can't even tell him. Suigetsu had been right, Hinata thinks; Naruto would never hurt her, but Suigetsu is a different matter, and she doesn't want that to happen to him, doesn't want violence inflicted on him for something she's just as guilty of as he is, if not more. He hadn't given anyone any vows, or made any promises; he's not, himself, being unfaithful to anyone, not like she is.

Was.

_Is_.

It _can't_ be past tense, not when continuing to keep it a secret is in the present, even when the act itself is in the past, not when treacherous parts of her mind keep revisiting the sensations she'd discovered today. Not when the only person she can even talk to about it is the same person she'd done it with, because anybody else might tell everyone.

Can she just pretend it never happened? It's an awful lie, a wicked deception, but there's already no evidence that Suigetsu had been here except the parcel he'd delivered, before he'd stepped into the house. It feels more like a fantasy gone too far when she stands in her own home and sees no evidence of what they'd done, as though he'd dropped off the parcel and gone on his way and she'd just imagined everything that had happened after that.

Hinata doesn't know if she can deal with this any other way than that, any way but letting herself believe she'd imagined something far too vivid. If she tries to make it real in her head, the guilt will rip her apart, she just knows it. And if it's real, it can really be discovered, really break Naruto's heart, really ruin the lives of every single person involved.

It can't be real. She won't let it.

And Suigetsu's promised never to tell.

It can't be real, because if it isn't, then nobody needs to know.

When Naruto comes home, he greets her with a kiss, and her heart twists with mingled guilt and love. She cooks one of his favourite meals, and listens to him as he talks about his day, and fills her mind with reminders of all the groceries she has to buy tomorrow, all the chores she needs to do.

Naruto hasn't noticed anything, because there's nothing to notice. Nothing is wrong. All of this - chores, lists, her husband's smile - all of this is real.

Those other things aren't here, they don't exist. She won't let them.

This is real, and nothing else.

Nothing at all.


	7. Loud And Clear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which some people are sexually frustrated, and some are very happy indeed.

Everything is fine, for Hinata, as long as she makes herself forget. She can be happy, with Naruto. She can lie beside him at night and listen to the way he breathes so slowly and peacefully in his sleep and let her heart fill up with gladness that she gets to be the one to be here with him. All she has to do is let herself pretend that she'd just had some stray fantasies, a little too detailed, and that she's over them now.

It helps that when she comes across Suigetsu, now and then, he never gives any sign that it had been any more than fantasy. He's friendly, not flirty, and he doesn't outstay his welcome at any point. She sees him with Shino, and even with Kiba sometimes, their past quarrels behind them, and he's getting along well enough with both of them. He still argues with Kiba, though, but it never really lasts long, and to be honest, Hinata thinks that Kiba probably deserves to be around people who'll stand their ground and argue back just as loudly as he does. It's probably good for him.

(He's her teammate and her friend, but it's _because_ he's those things that she knows him well enough to believe that having equally combative opponents in his arguments can be a good thing for him.)

Life in the village goes on much as it always has; there are crises, but they deal with them, and then they move on.

When Hinata realises she's pregnant, though, this sense of life going on as usual shatters entirely. It should have been the happiest moment of her life, but instead she locks herself in the bathroom and sits on the floor, tears running down her face, trying to work out if she can be really, truly sure about things it's very important to be sure on.

She thinks she can be, maybe, and there are things that need to be done, so she can't stay in here forever, much as she might like to. All she can do, therefore, is dry her eyes, get up, and keep moving, and hope things turn out all right.

Hinata still doesn't tell Naruto about the baby, though, not for another few weeks, and by then she's certain enough to take that chance. He's beside himself with delight, and in the face of his enthusiasm, Hinata can regain the joy she ought to have had all along.

She's not the only one currently producing an example of Konoha's next generation, though; so many of her friends seem to be having children now. Hinata holds babies, and coos over them, and tries to imagine the life her child will have, growing up alongside them. She hopes they'll all be friends, that they'll support each other and grow up safely, never needing to be lonely or afraid. She hopes they'll never have to stand on a battlefield.

Sometimes, she wonders what Neji's children might have looked like, if he'd lived, if he could have joined in with this growing band of parents. She thinks she'd have liked to help his children, to be part of their lives and encourage them to succeed. But Neji will never hold a son or daughter of his own, now, and all she can do is vow that this next generation will grow up knowing his name.

When she does, at last, bring her own son into the world, he's everything she could have hoped. He may be a red-faced squalling wrinkled little thing, but he's beautiful to her.

They name him Boruto, and she catches Naruto standing beside the crib at odd hours, just staring with wonder into the face of his son.

It would be idyllic, if Boruto were a placid child, but he isn't. He's a colicky baby, crying so often that sleep becomes a distant memory. Naruto suggests using a clone to carry Boruto around on walks to soothe the baby and let them both get some rest, but Hinata refuses - if anything happens to the clone, he'll disappear, and might drop the baby. Even if he doesn't drop him, it'll still end in little Boruto left somewhere outside, without a parent anywhere in sight.

Instead, she goes walking with Boruto herself, while Naruto sleeps, and then Naruto does the same for her in his turn. It's not as easy, for him, since Boruto still needs to be fed quite often, but it does give Hinata the chance to take vital naps in a house that's actually quiet. The colic begins to die down after a few months, and things get easier, but Hinata still feels sometimes that she'll never feel completely rested again.

Once Boruto is old enough to sleep more soundly, Hinata begins to feel better, and her love for her tiny son is no longer complicated by exhausted bafflement that a child could be so loud and scream for so long without any discernible cause. It helps, too, that she has friends who are willing to babysit sometimes; being able to leave the house and walk around freely hadn't seemed like a luxury, once, but now it's a treasure beyond imagination.

On one of her walks, she hears quiet voices, the only warning that keeps her from colliding with Sasuke and Jūgo, who've returned only recently to the village. They're standing on the other side of a sharp corner, out of sight, in a side street Hinata had meant to use as a shortcut, with Jūgo's arms around Sasuke, and Sasuke's head tucked beneath Jūgo's chin. It's so intimate a little moment that Hinata backs up silently, and goes the long way around, rather than interrupt them. They'd probably thought themselves entirely unseen there, and they would have been if it hadn't seemed like a quicker way to get to Kurenai-sensei's house.

It's not really any of her business, but Hinata can't help but remember the infinitely tender look on Jūgo's face and think that those two must have found something really special with each other. She's glad, really, because she likes knowing there are more people out there who are in love and really, truly happy. The world's a brighter and kinder place when people are happy, she's sure of it.

She goes home soon enough thereafter, but she feels better for having been able to go out and talk to friends.

Boruto is nearly a year old by the time Hinata has the accident.

That's the only way she can really see it. _The accident._

She's left Boruto with Sakura, who's been practically begging for a chance to babysit again, and who adores spending time with him, and gone to buy groceries. She's been weighing up the value for money of the different vegetables when someone, inattentive, bumps her heavily from behind, nearly knocking her sprawling. She doesn't hit the floor, though, because there's a person in the way, someone who catches her, someone whose body is right up against hers for a few moments of unexpected contact, and when she looks up, it's into Suigetsu's vivid purple eyes.

"Whoa, you okay?"

 _No, I'm not._ Every single point in her body that's touching his seems to tingle, and it keeps right on going even once she steps back and lets go of him. All the things she's been trying to forget had been pushed out of her head, but her body remembers, and she can feel her heart racing as a tide of raw, unfiltered desire runs through her. "I'm fine," she says shakily, and looks around for her basket.

When he sets it back in her hands, his fingertips brush hers, and all she can think about for those few heated seconds is having those fingers touching more of her. She's bright red, and she can only hope that he takes it as embarrassment at colliding with him.

"I - I need to buy these," she stammers, and tries to get on with that, horrified at how rude she must seem, acutely conscious of his gaze watching her as she finishes her shopping.

She's halfway home before he catches up to her.

"Hinata! Hey, _Hinata_! You forgot this!"

Turning, she sees he's holding her purse. She'd been flustered enough to leave it behind, apparently. This time, she really is red with embarrassment. "Oh, thank you." When he hands it over, one of his hands is beneath her cupped pair as he gives the purse a little pat with his other hand as if to say 'see, no harm done.' He might as well have slipped that hand beneath her clothing, with the way it's making her brain overheat. Her breath quickens, and she stares up at him, flushed and yearning, and she sees something like desire creep into the way he's looking at her too.

"Did you get all your change?" The words are casual, but Suigetsu's eyes hold hers, and Hinata is suddenly absolutely certain that the same sorts of things are going through his mind as are going through her own.

"I - I think so." She nearly drops her bag of groceries while trying to check, so Suigetsu takes it from her, to hold it while she counts the money in her purse. She has to count it four times; she keeps losing track of where she's up to. "Yes, it's all here."

"Good." Suigetsu hesitates, and glances down at the bag he's holding. "...Want me to carry this for you?" he offers, quietly, and she can hear the other offer beneath the surface of that one.

She has a choice to make. _Yes, please. No, thank you._ She can see, as vividly as if she has some power of precognition, what will happen if she agrees, and she wants it so badly she aches with the thought, but... she knows what it would mean to choose that, out here, to walk home with him knowing she'd decided to say yes.

"It's not heavy, today. I didn't buy much," she says, instead, temporising, and she sees him nod before he hands the bag back over to her.

"See you later, then."

It's a disappointment, and a relief, and frustrated lust rakes at her all the way home.  She feels pleased, and foolish for being pleased, and regrets everything she's chosen and quite a few things she hasn't. 

She keeps imagining the other side of things, the _what-if_ paths the future might have taken. Even once she gets home, she's still imagining Suigetsu slipping into the house behind her; even when she's putting away the groceries, she's picturing his hands on her hips, unfastening her clothing so he can turn her world into a hazy mess of pleasure all over again - and again after that, until she's too tired even to stand.

There are too many things in her mind, all of them so vivid that even shutting herself in the bathroom and going to town on herself with her fingers isn't enough to make it stop. It just works her up further, leaving her unsatisfied and still craving more.

She hears the front door open, and Naruto call his greeting, and she hastily pulls up her pants and goes out to say hello.

His first kiss is electric, and she pulls him into a second one, passionate enough to leave him stunned and gasping.

"Uh, hey, Hinata?" he says, those warm blue eyes filled with pleased confusion.

"Naruto," she whispers against her husband's neck, almost giddy with relief as she realises she has a way to tame the cravings that have been tormenting her, "I really need you, right now."

"Need me? What for?" Naruto's puzzlement dissolves, as does his composure, as Hinata strokes the front of his pants until she can feel him growing hard beneath her hand. "Oh, uh, sure, yeah, let's - do _that_ -" And she hears his voice wobble and crack a little as he tries to answer her sensibly.

She's never been this forward with Naruto before, but she's not getting any objections whatsoever as she gently pushes him into a chair and straddles his lap, rubbing herself against him until her desire's at fever-pitch again and he's letting out the occasional thin moan between their kisses.

She doesn't need any more than that, not this time, not when she feels she's been ready for this for hours. She steps out of her pants and unfastens his, pulls her underwear aside and sinks down onto him without any further delay, with a sound that's not quite a whimper at the feel of him inside her. He's helping out, just as eager as she is, now, his thumb rubbing against her clit, his bandaged other hand caressing her breasts through her shirt, and Hinata rolls her hips into the feel of him, letting her movements augment the thrusts he can't manage alone in this position.

The longer she rides him, the more frenetic her pace becomes, until she feels him shudder, hears him moan as he comes inside her, and lets his touch push her the rest of the way as well.

She stays there, atop him, a little longer, panting, acutely conscious of the way he's looking at her, with something akin to awe on his face.

"Hinata," he murmurs, and kisses her deeply, before laughing, just a little. "Wow."

She smiles, and kisses him again, and lets herself enjoy the relief that comes from satisfying an urge that had afflicted her all afternoon. She's tired, and it feels as though her bones no longer work right, but she's happy.

"I love you," she whispers in his ear, and pulls back just enough to look at his face, to see the way his eyes shine and the warmth of his answering smile. He's still very flushed, and she has no doubt she is too, but that's all right. That's just fine.

"I love you too," he tells her, beaming.

He helps her make dinner, too, and personally retrieves Boruto while it's cooking, and all the while, he keeps looking her way, every so often, with a giddy little grin on his face.

 

* * *

  
It's not always easy for Sasuke, being back in the village, but it's an indescribable relief to come home and discover that the place is still standing and Suigetsu and Karin have, contrary to some of his fears, managed to avoid killing or even maiming each other. They've been very good about not doing that kind of thing, it seems, and they're obviously pleased to see him. They're glad to see Jūgo, too, and he's certainly happy to see them.

At times like this, Sasuke feels as though everything might be somewhat all right after all. He has Taka around him, and they really do care if he's all right. Even when their compassion comes bundled with sarcasm and clumsy fondness, he knows it's there, and it helps. And when everything is too much, Jūgo is right there with him, in particular, to hold onto him until he feels grounded again.

Jūgo loves him, without demands or hesitations or any reservations at all.

Jūgo is also one of the reasons it's nice to be back in the village, though - because a lot of things get easier and more comfortable with a real bed beneath the two of them. It's not as though they'd let the absence of one stop them, not in the slightest, but this is more comfortable, and Sasuke can't deny that.

He especially can't deny it right now, when he's lying on his back on that nice soft bed, head pushed backward into the pillow, hand clenched in the sheets, while Jūgo's mouth envelops his erection. Jūgo is patient, and thorough, and pays attention to details, and all of those things make Sasuke want to writhe in place when Jūgo's blowing him, because Jūgo's learned how to draw this out until Sasuke can hardly bear it, until finally coming is a release that whites out every thought in his head in one spectacular burst of sensations.

Jūgo _also_ doesn't tire easily, and Sasuke knows there's more awaiting him once he's recovered.

He looks forward to it, but in the meantime, he's happy to be held close and kissed, and to feel Jūgo's hands as they move on his skin, more gently than anyone else might credit, given their size. Jūgo touches him with the reverence of someone uncovering holy treasure, every time, and it tells Sasuke without a single word of Jūgo's love, every time.

For his own part, Sasuke seldom smiles, but the smiles he does have are given most often to Jūgo, and he knows Jūgo can read in them how he feels.

 

* * *

  
Suigetsu had really thought it might happen again, today. He hadn't been expecting to encounter Hinata again, and he _definitely_ hadn't been expecting to get her looking up at him like he could've fucked her up against the wall in some side alley and had her thank him for every bit of it, but life's always had a way of throwing the unexpected at him.

From the way she'd been looking at him, he'd been certain that if he were to go home with her, it would've ended in their screwing each other senseless in all the ways he's been politely pretending they've never done before and would never have wanted to do again, and more besides. All it would've taken would be her agreeing that he ought to carry her groceries, and they'd have fucked on any available surface in her house, including the floor if necessary.

(It's not like that would've bothered him, either, given how clean Hinata keeps her house.)

He'd wanted it, he really had, all that old eagerness coming back to him in a flash, but -

\- but that hadn't been what she'd wanted.

She hadn't given him an outright rejection, so he wonders if he really needs to rule out something happening in the future, if Hinata ever decides she'd rather be fucking him, but it'll depend on whether she still feels guilty about that kind of thing.

Suigetsu doesn't feel guilty.

What he _does_ feel is horny, and it doesn't help that the chorus of moans in the bedroom next to his is starting up again, and now it's a duet.

There's the rhythmic sound of a headboard hitting the wall, _thump-thump-thump_ , and given the way Sasuke's noises change in time with it, Suigetsu can tell exactly what's going on.

He'd trained in the silent killing techniques of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, in hopes of joining their number, once. As a result, he's honed his sense of hearing to a degree that should allow him to pick men off by sound alone in thick mist, but is currently giving him enough clues that if he wanted, he could probably envision everything, right down to the positions they're both in. Besides, they do this so often that he feels like he must be some kind of twisted connoisseur by now, when it comes to judging what's happening.

It's not helping him at all, given his earlier encounter.

Still, if there's one good thing about it, it's that they're both much too loud to hear him, especially when he's trying to be quiet.

Lying in his bed, eyes half-closed, Suigetsu wraps a hand around his cock, already half-hard, and gets to work on it, his hand semi-hydrified to make everything more fluid and feel better for him, not making a sound beyond a few very quiet muffled grunts now and then.

He thumbs over the head firmly as he hears Jūgo's voice pick up in volume while Sasuke's goes thinner and more desperate, everything about the sounds telling him Sasuke's getting himself fucked at a speed that's probably making him damn near breathless, given the strength Jūgo can put behind every single movement he makes.

Suigetsu comes not long before he hears them in a similar state, but he barely makes a sound, while if someone had been standing at the front door they'd probably have been able to hear Sasuke and Jūgo.

The noise dies away, and the silence that returns isn't just blissful by dint of being silent, but because that's a pretty good description of the state everybody's in.

Suigetsu yawns, cleans himself up a bit, and rolls over, pulling the blanket up around him. At least now he can sleep, without keeping himself up thinking about the look on Hinata's face.


	8. At Home To Visitors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata's home is visited, more than once.

It's another month before Hinata sees Suigetsu again. At least this time, she's a little more prepared for her own reaction to him, which hasn't diminished in the slightest over time. His smile still does odd things to her insides, and if circumstances cause them to touch, contact with him still leaves her skin tingling long after that contact has stopped. It's still not fair at all that being around him can do this to her, when she is in every other respect a happily married woman, but there are always unfair things in life, she knows, and one has to deal with them all the same.

She's out with Boruto, this time, and Suigetsu stops to say hello - once again, he's just friendly, not flirty, in spite of the heated moments there have been between them in the past.

"So this is him, huh?" Suigetsu says, grinning crookedly at her, and leaning in to get a better look at the baby. "Hi, squirt. Look at you, huh? Gonna be a shinobi when you're older, I bet."

Boruto reaches out, grasping at Suigetsu's face, and gets hold of a handful of hair. Chortling in delight, the baby yanks hard on his prize, only to stare, bewildered, at his own pudgy little fist, which is now dripping wet and entirely without any hair held in it at all. He makes a confused and accusing noise, and stares at Suigetsu, whose hair is reforming in its usual position, just as if nothing at all had happened.

"This is Boruto, yes," Hinata confirms, smiling down at her baffled son. She's heard speculations about his future shinobi career from plenty of people, but Suigetsu doesn't follow his with any of the other things she's used to hearing. Of course, Boruto looks like his father, with that blond hair, those blue eyes, the whisker-marks on his cheeks, but unlike most, Suigetsu doesn't point that out.

Instead, he asks if Hinata remembers when Hanabi has been very small, if Boruto reminds her of that at all, if Hanabi has volunteered to babysit, and draws out anecdotes about who's minded Boruto and what little challenges they've faced as a result.

Hinata finds herself talking for long enough that she actually has to hurry home if she's to make dinner, and feels oddly buoyant all the way. She'd enjoyed the conversation - Suigetsu's just as engaging to talk to as she remembers him being in the past. It's enough to make her almost forget the other feelings that simmer beneath the surface, even in spite of having had her son with her the whole time.

When she meets Suigetsu again, two days later, he's buying buns at the same bakery she goes to again. He asks her opinion of the new little cakes the bakery's selling, listens to her opinion, then bids her a farewell and heads off, leaving her staring after him, unsure of how to feel.

The attraction's still there, and it doesn't seem to be going away with increased familiarity, but he's beginning to feel more and more like a natural part of her life, as though he'd always been supposed to be there, and only some cosmic accident had prevented this from being the case until now. It's not as though he's doing it deliberately, either, she thinks; Suigetsu has a very expressive face, one that tends to show his emotions clearly, and there's always honest surprise on his face when they encounter each other.

Pleased surprise, yes, which is another thing she finds herself thinking about, but genuine surprise nonetheless. Still, he always looks happy to see her, and she's found herself enjoying that; it's nice to be around people who treat her arrival as something unexpected but very welcome. She has that sometimes with other friends, but she doesn't value it any less just because it comes from more than one person. After the way she'd once seen herself, being reminded that people are glad to be around her and value her presence is just as welcome every single time it happens as if it were the first time.

It's only a little awkward, in this case, because she keeps thinking about grabbing Suigetsu and kissing him, among other things.

Three days later, there he is again, at the training field she'd decided to visit, and this time she's even more certain that he can't possibly be doing this on purpose, because she'd only decided five minutes earlier to go train there, after Hanabi had encountered her in the street and gleefully stolen Boruto away to spoil him for the rest of the day, and Suigetsu is in the middle of some fiercely graceful sword exercises that he has to have been doing for a while now.

It's a coincidence, but it's one that leaves her weak at the knees, because he has his shirt off, and she can see the way his muscles move with every strike and block in the pattern he's working his way through. He hasn't even noticed she's there, so utterly focused on his exercise that he's apparently shut everything else out, and the look on his face is intense enough to make her feel a little breathless.

When the exercise ends, he starts a little at the sight of her standing there, and then grins sheepishly at her. "Uh, hey Hinata. Here to train? Sorry if I've been keeping you waiting or anything, I'm done here if you wanna use this spot."

"I don't mind, but thank you."

As Hinata warms up, she's acutely conscious of the fact that Suigetsu hasn't left yet; he's standing there, drinking from a bottle of water, watching her idly. Well, it's not like she can complain, not after watching him at his exercises, she thinks, so the only thing to do is get on with her training. It's all coming back to her quickly, spurred on by her desire not to look bad in front of him, and her Sixty-Four Palms work shatters a stump into splinters very rapidly. When she glances toward him, he's looking impressed.

"Hey, you wanna spar with me?" he offers, and Hinata nods, eyes lighting up.

Her luck had seemed perverse, somehow, but this is clear and obvious good luck, to find  a skilled sparring partner right here when she's in the mood to get some training done, and after watching him, she has no doubts at all about his skill.

"Great!" Suigetsu grins at her, razor-sharp teeth flashing in the sunlight.

Hinata sets herself in a Gentle Fist stance, and waits for him to come within her range. With her Byakugan active, there's no way he can surprise her, from any angle he chooses as his attack vector, and once he's within range she can attack freely. So she thinks, at least, until he starts to move.

He's _fast_ , moving quickly enough that landing a hit is difficult, and his tenketsu are abnormally hard to find when his body keeps shifting between solid and liquid composition. Half the time it seems as though he's _all_ chakra, with no specific points to strike, and he can change his body in an instant, apparently without conscious thought required for any of it. The abilities of the Hyūga are special, but it seems his abilities are every bit as unusual, and it makes him a challenge for her - which is perfect, in a way, since she'd come out here to train, and she's better off challenging herself if she wants to get better.

He's not having it all his own way, though; she sees his eyes widen with alarm several times as he narrowly avoids strikes that would probably have disrupted his chakra even with his unusual body structure. She knows he isn't using his full strength against her, however - all the extra information on offer from her Byakugan is enough to tell her that he's holding back somewhat. That does seem fair, since she in turn isn't aiming to hit any points that will damage vital organs if he happens to be solid when she connects with them; this is only a sparring match, not a battle to the death, and he clearly knows the difference just as well as she does.

At last, he steps back, grinning at her, and salutes her with his blade. "You're good, just like I thought."

"So are you." Hinata grins back at him, buoyed up by the adrenaline of a good round of sparring, and feeling a rush of excitement that isn't dying away, even though she's panting.

"Whew, I needed that." Setting his blade aside, Suigetsu stretches exaggeratedly, laughing. "Time for a dip, right?" He points toward the water, not far away.

Hinata pauses, about to begin some warm-down exercises. She already knows how Suigetsu prefers to do his swimming, and if she'd thought her pulse had been settling down, the thought of him naked in the water - and of herself naked there too, since there's a sense of invitation in his question - is enough to set it racing again.

He can meld with the water, and emerge from it again freely, she's already witnessed that. If she were to get in with him, would he be able to touch her, unseen, or would he turn up again suddenly, close to her, to do that? If she agrees to something like this... who knows what might happen afterwards?

Does she _want_ those things to happen?

Hinata hesitates, looking at Suigetsu.

At some point, he's poured the contents of one of his water-bottles over his head to cool off. Droplets of water run down his face, his neck, his chest and belly...

"I think I want a proper bath," she says, slowly and carefully, as though spinning some fragile thread that might snap at any moment. "If... if you wanted, you could use my shower? Your place is on the other side of the village, and that's a long walk..."

Suigetsu stares at her, and for a heart-stopping moment Hinata thinks she might have gone too far, that he'll call her on it at any moment - or not understand, and make her explain, and if she has to do that she isn't sure she has the courage to put the words together properly. And then - and then he's nodding, something very thoughtful in his eyes.

"You're right," he says, so very casually. "That's a long walk. I'll be grateful if I can wash up at your place. Meet you there?"

Hinata nods in return, shaky with relief and anticipation and nervousness all at once. She's really gone and done it now, hasn't she? She knows he's understood her meaning. And now, all that's left is to walk home, knowing what she's just decided to do.

The walk goes by without her ever really seeing her surroundings; she has to make herself walk as slowly and casually as possible. This is really going to happen. When she gets home, this is really going to happen.

She closes the door behind her, when she gets home, with a long and shaky exhale. This is the kind of turning point she could never have imagined herself taking, once, but she's tired of hesitating, tired of trying to hide from her own thoughts. Every time she sees Suigetsu, that jolt of lust comes back to her, and she's tired of trying to pretend it isn't there. It's maddening, and exciting, and it feels as though that's what's moving her body now, not her own will, as she strolls dreamily through her own home and into her bathroom. Perhaps she can be clean by the time he gets here.

The familiar motions involved in washing require no thought at all, which is just as well, because she's got none to spare right now. She's just rinsing off her hair when she feels something, some odd little flicker of movement, and realises that Suigetsu's standing there, in her bathroom, watching her.

"Did I guess right?" he asks, and his voice is hoarse, suddenly, and he's flushed, eyes alight with need. 

Hinata _likes_ having this effect on him, she realises. She nods, her throat too tight to speak, and reaches out a hand to him, and then he's beneath the shower's spray with her, kissing her eagerly, his hands roaming over her body, making her shiver. The tiles are a shock of cold against her back, heated skin pressed against cool ceramic, and his fingers have slipped between her thighs already, teasing her until she whimpers and clutches desperately at him.

"Fuck, _Hinata_ -" he whispers against her neck, fingers dipping into her more deeply, his teeth brushing her throat with only the faintest scrape of sharp points on soft skin. It doesn't hurt, and right now she thinks she might not care even if it did. Her fingers tighten on his shoulders, slippery with water, and she clings to him as he pushes her onward, leaving her trembling and crying out, thankful beneath the haze in her mind for the way the shower drowns out her voice.

She's still holding onto him, even after that first orgasm, as he kisses her, and smiles, and whispers in her ear that he has some _very special_ things to show her, if she'd like to step into the bath next. Eagerly, she obliges, just as soon as she can walk steadily.

Suigetsu turns off the shower, and slides in after her, and as Hinata stands naked in the water, he kisses her neck, wraps an arm around her, and shows her the first of the things he can do.

He's channeling water, somehow, through the palm of his hand in a spray like a showerhead - but a showerhead probably couldn't bend like _this_ , couldn't curve and angle inward and direct all of its water exactly where it ought to be. It's just as well he's supporting her, really, because that insistent force of water is touching her in ways she's never known before. This isn't something normal human fingers could do, and it just keeps going, while she writhes in place, hips pushing wantonly into the effects of his strange technique, her pleasure drawn out to almost unbearable lengths by his skill with the jutsu he's misusing so creatively.

She's coming again, she realises, and only Suigetsu's support is keeping her on her feet - but even that is changing, as he lets her sink downward, onto his cock, which slides smoothly into her and then swells further, making her gasp as it fills her. He's still not done surprising her, either, because it seems as if all the water in the tub is alive, now, caressing her, rubbing and tweaking every single sensitive spot it can find, all at once, and even though it feels like she's riding him, he can keep up enough freedom of movement to thrust into her solidly, over and over.

She doesn't have to do anything except feel, and there's enough sensation to leave her senses hazy with ecstasy, her mind a crackling fire with no thought of anything but how _good_ it feels, how much he's doing to her and how much more she still wants from him. He takes liberties no-one else could ever have taken, and she loves every single one of them.

It could have been days she'd been there, transformed into a being comprised solely of pleasure, or hours; she doesn't know. She's lost count of how many times she's come, and wouldn't have the faintest hope of guessing at the total. Her muscles ache, but there's no way she could possibly mind, not when the last aftershocks still send shivers through her, not when he's kissing her and telling her how wonderful she is, how good it is to see her face when she comes, how good she sounds and feels.

She feels thoroughly debauched and utterly pampered, all at the same time. Somewhere along the way, any thoughts of shame or guilt have left her; she can't feel that kind of regret right now, not when cravings she hadn't even realised she could have are settling into a sense of absolute satiation.

This isn't sex, not in the way she's previously understood the word, anyway; this goes far beyond that, because her previous definitions seem inadequate somehow in the face of what she's just experienced. She hadn't even realised the human body could stand up to being made to feel that good, for that long, all in one day.

Somewhere along the way, through the blissed-out haze, she realises that Suigetsu's lifting her from the bath and drying her off, before carrying her to her bed and settling her into it. She cooperates as well as she can, because rest seems like a very good idea right now.

She feels a fleeting touch to her cheek that might have been a kiss, and then he's gone, and Hinata is left to drift off into a contented sleep.

She gets a bit of gentle teasing the next day for overdoing her training after spending time away from it, to a degree that she'd come home and fall asleep and still be a little sore thereafter, but she's the only one, other than Suigetsu, who knows it's anything more than that, and she's going to keep it that way.

Days pass, and Hinata recovers, but she doesn't forget. She can't forget, not after something like that.

And so, when she comes across Suigetsu earnestly haggling with a trader for more supplies for Tenten's shop just as she drops by the jeweller nearby to pick up something pretty for Ino's birthday, when he stops to speak to her, she waits until no-one at all is listening, and quietly, briefly, gives him the invitation to visit her the day after tomorrow, at home.

He comes.

(Once he gets there, so does she, repeatedly.)

With every visit, he seems to discover more about her body, more of how to make her feel good, and Hinata never wants these visits of his to stop. She catches herself anticipating them at odd moments, even when he isn't there, even when she hasn't seen him in days - but he never makes her wait long before he visits again.

He takes care, every time, to be utterly discreet; nobody even sees him arrive, and they certainly never see him leave. No-one could possibly know what she does with him, on quiet afternoons with the house all to herself.

 

* * *

 

Sasuke doesn't really enjoy having to go looking for Naruto, but Naruto, while blindingly obvious and completely unsubtle whenever he's in the vicinity, is also prone to not being wherever he ought to have been, or at least prone to sending out shadow clones that disappear as soon as their jobs are done, making any reported sightings of him worse than useless.

In the end, when Sasuke has exhausted his other options, he resorts to visiting Naruto's house, to see if he's there.

Sasuke looks up at the place, Rinnegan eye gleaming, searching for any sign of Naruto's chakra.

There's chakra in there, yes, which is to be expected, given Naruto has a wife and a son, but none of that chakra belongs to Naruto - or to his child. There are two bodies of chakra in the house, deeply intertwined, energy levels rising and falling erratically.

Sasuke knows both of them.

He also knows, or thinks he does, what kinds of things two people must be doing, for their chakra signatures to be in that kind of proximity.

He could be wrong.

He hopes he's wrong.

Because if he's right, then Suigetsu has managed to get himself into a situation that has an _incredibly_ high potential to blow up in his face, and in the faces of anybody else in the blast radius when things finally go wrong.

Suigetsu _wouldn't_... would he?

What had Suigetsu said to him, once, that he'd paid far too little attention to? Something about a girl who might be interested in him, a pretty girl, a shy one?

 _Tell me this is some ridiculous misunderstanding,_ Sasuke thinks, still staring up at the house. _Tell me you're not actually sleeping with Naruto's wife. Tell me you're smarter than that, Suigetsu._

Sasuke shakes his head and walks away. He'll keep looking for Naruto, who is very obviously not here.

It doesn't occur to him, immediately, that he might be helping Suigetsu get away with whatever he's doing when he encounters Naruto on the street and announces, "Kakashi wants to talk to you." That thought comes later, and he dismisses it when it does appear.

He hasn't involved himself in that mess, and he doesn't want to; the fact that his doing what he'd been going to do anyway might have affected things is irrelevant, beyond the part where he doesn't have to deal with the full ramifications of that potential headache today, at least.

If there's one thing Sasuke doesn't need in his life, it's any more headache-inducing situations.


	9. Creating New Problems

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suigetsu and Naruto spend some time around each other.

Something's off, somehow, when Suigetsu comes home for the night. The mood is wrong. Karin's out, which is good, but Sasuke is giving him a long, tired-looking stare, which isn't good at all.

He doesn't usually look at Suigetsu that way, though Suigetsu's seen that expression on his face any number of times because of other people. This really isn't a good sign, and Suigetsu begins to mentally sift through anything he could have been doing to bug Sasuke more than usual lately. He hasn't neglected any household chores, he hasn't had any major arguments with Karin, he hasn't made anyone in Konoha fearful that he's about to hunt them down and dismember them for any reason that presents itself, he hasn't even teased Sasuke very much about anything, so... why's he getting that look?

Unless...

Sasuke couldn't possibly _know_ , could he? It's not as though he socialises with the Uzumaki family any more than he has to, and he doesn't dabble in gossip - not that there'd be any gossip to hear, not with how careful Suigetsu's been... Has Hinata let something slip to someone? No, if she had, Suigetsu's first clue would probably have been the sound of Naruto beginning a rampage across the village aimed in his general direction.

If it's not that, though, what could it even be?

"Hey, Sasuke," Suigetsu calls cheerfully, trying to breeze past that awkwardness by acting as casual as possible and hoping that will fix things.

It doesn't.

"Why." Sasuke doesn't really sound exasperated, but only because his voice has been so thoroughly drained of emotion that mere exasperation would have to elbow its way in while wading through half-set cement.

"Why...?" Suigetsu tilts his head, eyeing Sasuke, nervous but trying not to show it. "Why'd I say hello? That's the kind of thing people say when they encounter each other, I mean, I dunno if you picked that one up, but it's one of those little social graces people are supposed to have sometimes..."

Sasuke doesn't rise to the bait hidden in that rambling response. "Why Hinata."

Suigetsu knows, without a shadow of a doubt, he'll have gone some very unfortunate shade as the blood drains from his face. "Huh? If you're asking me why she exists, I figure that's what you get when a Mama Hyūga and a Papa Hyūga-"

"- I know what you're doing," Sasuke interrupts. "I don't know why."

"...Sasuke, man, have you, like... _seen_ her? At all?"

"Yes." There's a long-suffering sigh from Sasuke, and Suigetsu realises it's the kind he himself had been accustomed to using sometimes in the old Taka days, when Sasuke had made decisions he'd thought were distinctly unwise. The shoe is apparently on the other foot, now, and Suigetsu finds that idea uncomfortable. "I can't stop you from doing stupid things," Sasuke continues, with his usual bluntness. "Just don't bring the trouble back here."

"...Okay...?" Suigetsu hesitates, scratching the back of his neck. "Does this mean move out, or just don't get caught and don't talk about it here?" he asks, a little uncertain about that one now.

"You don't need to move out."

"Okay. Got it. Right. No making a fuss here. Understood." It's such a relief not to be asked to leave that Suigetsu really doesn't mind the admonition he's getting in place of that feared eviction. It's actually fair enough really; Sasuke's worked through all his drama the hard way, so it's no wonder he hasn't any appetite to add someone else's drama to that pile.

Feeling more than a little sheepish, Suigetsu vanishes into his bedroom and flops down onto his bed. Sasuke's right, which is the really annoying part, but how is Suigetsu supposed to deal with the situation now? He thinks it over for a while, before a few ideas start coming to him.

It's not a good plan. It's not a wise plan. It is, in fact, rather more reminiscent of the old-fashioned Taka method of solving problems, which is to create a different problem and then see how well they could deal with that. But it has some perverse appeal, and it's definitely going to be a challenge, and that last part practically seals the deal, because Suigetsu really does like to pick his challenges, just to prove he can.

Besides, it makes him laugh for five straight minutes once he thinks of it, so he at least has to try.

The next morning, he gets up, gets himself together, and goes in search of Uzumaki Naruto.

Watching Naruto without getting caught is tricky, but at least all the fans provide a certain amount of cover. Not that he's one of them, or ever intends to be one of them; his focus on Naruto isn't about hero worship for the Saviour of Konoha or whatever flashy titles Naruto's getting these days. He's not here to squeal and flail or gush. His intentions are different.

Still, if he wants to get Naruto to drop his guard around him, how is he supposed to do that? He'd been there for that flash of Naruto's thoughts that had been spread across the battlefield during the war, so he has a little more insight than he might have had otherwise, but...

Well. He could throw his own misfortunes into the ring, use the unpleasant things that've happened to him as a weapon to make Naruto empathise with him; it's not like he's lacking in tragedies that he could use, but that's so complicated, and he doesn't feel like exposing so much of his past just so he can manipulate somebody. Manipulation's never been his strong point anyway; he'd rather keep things straightforward.

With that in mind, he settles on a matter of facts, ones he can live with discussing, and ones he doesn't mind bringing up with someone like Naruto.

After that, it's just a matter of choosing his moment carefully.

He gets lucky, soon enough; there's Naruto, stopping in for lunch at Ichiraku, and nobody else has spotted him yet, so the usual crowd of admirers is nowhere to be found. Suigetsu ducks in, and takes a spot on a seat next to Naruto, looking at the choices of foods on offer.

"Hey, whatcha think's the best thing for somebody to get if they can't chew tough food easy?" he asks, cheerily. People like to be consulted about things, so that's always a good first step when it comes to making a conversation work, he thinks.

"Huh?" Naruto blinks, and looks over at him, but the anticipation of ramen and the chance to recommend his favourites to somebody seem to be working their magic, because he only has the slightest hint of a scowl, and even that only briefly, before he's going on to explain the virtues of all the different kinds of ramen the place offers, and how well the noodles, broth and toppings compare to the ones he's encountered elsewhere. According to Naruto, there's simply nowhere else that could possibly offer ramen as good as one could find here, but Suigetsu had been expecting to hear something along those lines, so he just nods and makes agreeable noises in the right places.

Besides, once Naruto does get around to considering his specific request, and once the food's been supplied, Suigetsu has to admit that when it comes to ramen, Naruto knows his stuff. It actually does taste really good, and there's nothing in the bowl to be hard work for someone whose teeth are all razor-sharp fangs, without any molars to make chewing easier. Suigetsu can rip and tear, rend and sever, but actually chewing things is more difficult, so his choices are to tear off chunks of something that he can swallow, or to get used to a very soft diet.

He's used to it, at least; he's had teeth like this ever since the very first tooth he'd sprouted as a baby.

Still, it's nice to discover one more option if he wants to go out somewhere to eat, and this place is popular enough that if he wants to be sociable with Konoha's citizens (Konoha's _other_ citizens, he reminds himself, he's supposed to be one of them now) he'd better have something in mind to eat here.

Hinata had brought him here, once, to celebrate finding him a job, and he'd enjoyed his selection back then, but if there's one thing Naruto can apparently be counted on for, it's making the perfect ramen selection.

While he's eating, Suigetsu gives Naruto a sidelong glance. "That's your father up there, on the stone, right? His face?"

"Yeah, it is."

"We didn't have anything like that back in Kiri, or I guess I'd have spent a lot of time looking up at my great-grandfather. He was Second Mizukage, y'know."

"Your great-grandfather was Mizukage?" Naruto actually looks kind of impressed, which is nice, and interested, which is a good sign.

"Yeah, back in the old days my family was kinda important - power, influence, all that fun stuff. He was strong enough to get picked for Mizukage, and to go up against the Tsuchikage in battle, right up until the end."

"The end...?"

"They both killed each other. Both of 'em were too strong, I guess, so it turned into the kinda thing that can only really end one way." Suigetsu shrugs. "And there goes the family's influence. We started dying off after that. In all kinds of nasty ways. I guess people didn't wanna risk another one like him popping up and taking the power they'd rather was in their hands. Might even have been what got my brother killed, who knows? He was the best in our generation, anyway. Might've been what got me sold out, too."

"Somebody... sold you out?"

_Give the man a prize, he can follow a basic narrative thread,_ Suigetsu thinks sarcastically. Truth be told, he really hadn't been planning to tell Naruto any of this, but the guy's got this aura around him that practically invites story-telling. It's actually a bit unsettling, really. Still, even if he'd already decided he didn't want to make a big deal out of his past and use it to manipulate Naruto, now that it's coming out he might as well go with it, he figures, and try to establish a little sympathy, because that will help him significantly once he gets back to the things he'd actually been planning. Aloud, he answers, "Yeah, some treacherous asshole must've told Orochimaru where I'd be on my next mission, 'cos there he was, waiting to capture me, and not one person even came looking, not the whole time I was there. Had to wait for Sasuke to let me out, after he killed Orochimaru."

"So you weren't... one of Orochimaru's followers?" This is apparently new information for Naruto, who looks surprised.

"Ha! Hell no. I'd have to be crazy to volunteer for the kinds of things that sick bastard did to people like me," Suigetsu informs him, with a bark of mirthless laughter.

"...Oh."

Suigetsu doesn't really feel like going into any more detail right now, and looking like he's shrugging it off will probably make him look braver, so shrug he does. "Anyway, I heard a bit about how people used to look at you like you were garbage, so I figured we kinda had that in common, y'know? They never woulda done that if your Hokage dad was still around."

"It's okay." And if Suigetsu is shrugging off the past out of bravado, Naruto is doing the same thing, except he apparently genuinely holds no grudges for what he's been through. "They don't treat me like that anymore."

"Yeah, I'd noticed. They've always got other people to treat like garbage in your place, anyway." A bit of bitterness seeps into Suigetsu's tone. He forces it away, and gives Naruto the bright, cheerful grin that a change in conversation demands. "Pretty good to see your dad again though, right? You know, back during the war? He basically saved everybody, right?"

Naruto's whole expression lights up, quite suddenly, and Suigetsu's a little taken aback. He's not used to Naruto wearing an expression like this while he's anywhere near Suigetsu, so this is something pretty new. At least he's apparently on the right track here, though. "Yeah, he did. I got to tell him all kinds of things, too."

Suigetsu's grin, in the face of that ridiculously bright smile, has turned a little wry. "I'm glad you got to see him. I mean, if I could see my dad again, I'd definitely wanna do that. Makes me glad we found that scroll, really."

"Scroll?" Naruto's taken the bait.

"Yeah, the one for bringing back those dead Hokage that were all sealed in a death god's stomach for like forever otherwise? Me and Jūgo found that one, so they could be let out for the Edo Tensei and then get the chance to move on." He shrugs carelessly, and grins again. "And since it was just a coupla Zetsu that got sacrificed to bring them back, nobody even got hurt to get you your reunion and help save the world. Pretty cool, huh?"

He watches as that information sinks in, watches as Naruto's expression passes through a number of complicated states while these things are being processed, and finally Naruto nods. "Yeah, pretty cool. ...Thanks."

"Hey, no problem. Not like we could go letting the world get destroyed, is it? I mean, we live in it too, we don't exactly have anywhere else to go." Suigetsu laughs, eyes Naruto's empty ramen bowl, and asks, "You got anywhere else to be? Only, I'm all kinds of curious about your taijutsu, so I was wondering if you might wanna trade a few punches?"

"Sure!" Naruto's enthusiasm is obvious. "We can go right now, but I've gotta get home before dark, Hinata's making something special tonight."

"Let's go, then." Suigetsu laughs again, but not for any of the reasons Naruto might think he's laughing. He can already guess what sort of special something Hinata might be planning to cook; he'd helped her put the ingredients away just the other day, shortly before fucking her into a trembling mess of blissed-out exhaustion in her own bed. Naruto's got quite the treat waiting for him, really, and Suigetsu actually sincerely hopes he'll enjoy it.

They head to one of the training grounds, and Suigetsu eyes Naruto, still cheerful. "Just taijutsu, okay? No clones, no Rasengan, none of  those Nine-Tails powers, 'cos that just wouldn't be fair."

Naruto shrugs. "Kurama says he wouldn't want to get involved in this, anyway."

"Kurama?" Suigetsu blinks. "Oh, that's its name?"

"Yeah, it took me a while to find that out, but we're all friends now."

"Cool." Suigetsu shrugs. He supposes even giant chakra monsters capable of destroying villages probably have to have names, but he's not keen to pursue the subject much further, in case Naruto has a bug up his butt about Taka going after Eight-Tails, whose host is apparently a friend of Naruto's.

(He can't say he thinks much of Naruto's taste in friends on that score, really, but maybe that's just his 'that guy nearly killed the whole team' bias talking, or perhaps his inability to stomach bad rap, or the bit where he doesn't really like Kumo-nin in general for some old Kiri reasons he doesn't discuss with people these days, or... well, as far as Suigetsu's concerned, there are plenty of reasons to dislike Killer Bee, but Naruto clearly thinks differently.)

"Well, you gonna start hitting, or will I?" Suigetsu asks, grinning, and beckons to Naruto, who charges.

Trading blows with him gives Suigetsu a much better insight into how to approach his goals where Naruto's concerned, as well as giving him some clues to weaknesses he might have to exploit if everything goes wrong and Naruto does decide to try to kill him. It's a serious challenge, too, especially when Suigetsu's trying not to give too much about himself away in the process in return for that insight.

Eventually, he raises his hands, laughing, and calls, "I give!" That's the end of it, because Naruto's decent enough at least not to try to get a few more hits in on an opponent who's already conceded the match, which Suigetsu appreciates. Not everybody he's sparred against has adhered to that kind of decency.

Naruto's also easier than Hinata had been to coax into jumping into the water afterwards to get clean, and as Suigetsu merges with the water, he gets a good look at everything beneath the surface. If he'd still had a mouth, he might have grinned; this isn't going to be that much of a hardship after all. He debates with himself about how he wants to do this, but decides it's probably a little too soon to try anything really dramatic.

For now, it might have to be enough that Naruto's willing to spar with him and swim with him, because those are good first steps, and they mean Naruto's unlikely to outright hate him now. The guy obviously likes to be liked, so doing friendly things like this seems like a pretty good way to flip whatever switch in his brain tells him that someone's a friend.

Suigetsu surfaces, not far from Naruto, grinning at him. "Pretty good out here, huh? You must come out here a lot, I bet, when it's this nice?"

"Not really?" Naruto laughs sheepishly. "I'm busy a lot, so I don't get to do this as much anymore."

"Wow, that sucks. Y'know, if you don't make some time for fun, you're gonna get all tense, and then you won't be so good on missions either. You oughta try to relax a bit," Suigetsu advises.

"Like you do?" Naruto treads water, turning around to face him.

"Yeah, of course! I mean, I'm doing a job and everything, but I still take some time for fun, like this. Better off that way. Some people are just all serious all the time, but that's just... like, how don't they exhaust themselves spending every single minute that way?"

"Now you sound like Shikamaru used to sound," Naruto comments, laughing. "He used to be all about taking naps, saying everything was such a drag..."

""He's probably right, then." Suigetsu floats on his back in the water, idly watching to see if this makes Naruto turn away in disgust. It doesn't, not even when Suigetsu casually drifts across his field of vision, completely exposed. Another good sign. "Sometimes you just can't beat a good nap. 'Course, sometimes you gotta train, and all... you wanna do this again sometime? Like, next week, if you get time?"

"Well, I guess, yeah?"

"Great." Suigetsu grins again. "I figure we'll both get some good out of that."

He doesn't attempt to delay Naruto any further, though, making only idle conversation as they get out, dry off, and go their separate ways.

When he goes home, Sasuke is, fortunately, out, so he doesn't have to face that look again, or risk being asked about what he's going to do now - although, come to think of it, Sasuke probably won't ask. He hadn't seemed like he'd want any of the details, after all, and Suigetsu suspects that's likely to continue indefinitely. Maybe he'll tell Sasuke a few things anyway, one of these days, just to tweak his nose a little?

Better not, Suigetsu decides, suddenly. He's already pushed Sasuke's patience somewhat by starting a dalliance with Hinata and failing to conceal it adequately from however Sasuke had managed to discover it, and he has to admit that this latest little endeavour is unlikely to strike Sasuke as funny. It's kind of a pity, but he's known all along that Sasuke's sense of humour lacks a certain flair, so it's not like this is new for him.

No, he'll just keep this to himself, even if he does wish there were somebody in this village he could share the joke with who wouldn't go on to blab all his secrets everywhere afterwards.

Knowing where Naruto will be, he doesn't call on Hinata until the next day, when Naruto's busy and Hinata's at home and has privacy enough that Suigetsu can turn another of her baths into something unforgettable. He loves doing this, not just for the bit where he gets off, but also for the way it feels to see Hinata exhausted and completely sated, all because of what he's managed to do for her -

\- especially when it's things Naruto can't possibly hope to do. That part's really satisfying. He can't pretend otherwise, here in the privacy of his own head.

Suigetsu is generally inclined to be an honest sort of guy.

_Funny thing, really,_ he finds himself thinking, _that I'd end up doing so many things I've gotta lie about._


	10. A Plan In Motion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suigetsu makes a move (or several) on Naruto.

For a guy whose wife Suigetsu is currently fucking, Naruto's really not that terrible a person to hang around. Of course, Naruto isn't aware of that little detail, or any number of others, or things might rapidly become a whole lot less friendly, but as it stands, he's pretty decent company. Suigetsu's been grabbing every viable opportunity to spar with him, or to just hang out, and if Naruto's noticed anything, it seems to just be that he has some kind of new friend. He's certainly not acting anywhere near as hostile anymore, which is a vast improvement.

Suigetsu can say hello to him in the street and be assured he'll get the same wave and cheerful greeting that Naruto would give to most of the people in the village. Even if he hadn't had any ulterior motives beyond that, he could have called this a success, because it's definitely making life in Konoha a lot more comfortable. If Naruto likes someone, others in the village are more kindly disposed toward that person as well. Suigetsu enjoys the way people speak to him now, and tries not to think about the degree to which the opposite is also likely to be true if anything goes wrong and Naruto decides to hate him for some reason.

That's a problem to deal with if it does look like it's going to arise, but until then, Suigetsu figures he should probably save his energy for the problems that are actually facing him in the here and now, like how to persuade an apparently happily married man that a little experimentation on the side couldn't possibly hurt anyone.

There might be one other problem, perhaps, in the odd way he thinks Shikamaru might have been looking at him; the guy either suspects something's up or would prefer to be Suigetsu's target instead, but if it's the latter, Suigetsu thinks he'd really rather not go there. The guy's wife is actually kind of intimidating, and besides, Shikamaru smells of cigarettes, which Suigetsu isn't too keen on. Still, having to dissuade him would probably be a better outcome than trying to navigate around the suspicions of someone people keep calling a genius, so if it comes down to it, that option might be preferable.

Maybe he just thinks Suigetsu's buttering Naruto up to get on the good side of the future Hokage? It's a plausible idea, and only a minor bit of conniving, and sometimes the best way to avoid suspicion for a major wrong is to admit to a very minor one instead.

That's why, when Suigetsu finds himself hanging out with Ino and Chōji, he innocently drops into the conversation that he's been trying to get along with Naruto, because being at odds with a Hokage would be a bad idea, and he doesn't want to stress Sasuke out with his friends disliking each other, and how Naruto's really not what Suigetsu had thought he might be when he'd first come to the village. They seem to agree that trying to get along with Naruto is a good idea, that it's good to be friends with him, and the next time Suigetsu sees Shikamaru, the guy isn't giving him that look anymore, so that's one problem he can probably consider solved for now.

His main problem is taking longer, though. Weeks of socialising have made them friendlier, but no more than that, and Suigetsu kind of wonders if the guy might actually be completely and hopelessly straight.

Still, he'll know soon enough, he's decided; it might take a significant amount of manoeuvring to get there, but he'll get there all the same.

By a combination of luck and shameless opportunism, he hears that Naruto will be visiting an onsen outside the village on his way to a mission, in order to drop a few things off to people living nearby, around the same time that Tenten wants to check out a peculiar sickle variant being developed not far from there. He talks her into bringing him along - another minor triumph, that he's been given permission to leave the village while accompanied by a Konoha shinobi in good standing - and does his best to ensure he'll be there waiting when Naruto arrives.

He isn't, because Naruto never shows up, which is a major disappointment, and makes Suigetsu wish he'd just stayed in the village to take advantage of Naruto's absence by fucking Hinata as many times as opportunity permits. Still, there are always things that have to be sacrificed if one is trying to carry off any complicated plan, and this is one of them.

It takes Tenten three days to find the man with the special sickle, and Suigetsu does his best to simply enjoy being out of the village for the duration.

He had been feeling a little cooped up, really, even if he hadn't known what exactly he'd been feeling. It had simply been a nagging irritation, somewhere in the back of his mind, and only once it's gone can he see it for what it had been.

On the evening of the third day, though, there's Naruto - not on his way to a mission, but coming back from one, looking travel-stained and tired and eager for a little break.

It's a much better opportunity than Suigetsu had been hoping to engineer, and he makes sure he'll get into the onsen at the same time that Naruto does.

There's nobody else around, either, which is even better, because he'd been wondering on the day he'd expected Naruto to arrive how he might contrive some privacy, given the number of people who'd been there at the time. Now, though, he has his chance.

Suigetsu slips into the water and sighs in contentment. "Man, you can't beat places like this for a chance to relax, can you?"

"Yeah, 's pretty good," Naruto mumbles, eyes half-closed. He doesn't even pay attention as Suigetsu swims over closer to him, apparently too busy soaking in the warmth.

"All it needs is, like, a massage table and you'd be all set." Suigetsu laughs quietly. "None of those around, but hey, not like a person can't improvise, right?" Acting very carefully and deliberately, while making it look like the most casual and thoughtless gesture ever, he reaches out and sets a hand on Naruto's shoulder, his fingers lightly rubbing the wet skin, his thumb caressing the very top of Naruto's arm.

He's expecting the part where Naruto's head comes up sharply and he looks at Suigetsu, bewildered, and the part where Naruto turns in the water, which brings their faces into close proximity. He's not expecting, not quite, the part where Naruto's cheeks begin to go red, but it's a very welcome sign. Judging by that reaction, one potential obstacle is well and truly ruled out.

"Hey, what -" Naruto begins.

Suigetsu just laughs, and pats his shoulder. "Nobody ever done this for you before, man? 's no big deal, but you'll feel better for it. People do this kinda thing after missions and training all the time, and you shoulda seen the way you were moving when you came in here. Got a muscle or two complaining, I bet."

Naruto looks confused, but nods. It is apparently just that easy to convince him of things, so Suigetsu suspects he's spent a lot of time having things explained to him that are self-evident to other people. Taking that chance, Suigetsu slides around behind him, rubbing Naruto's shoulders and searching for the knot in a muscles that had made Naruto move so awkwardly.

He's rewarded with a tiny flinch, and then a sudden relaxation of Naruto's body, along with a pleased groan. "Wow, yeah, that was really sore, but you fixed it," Naruto informs him, in a voice filled with clear relief.

"See? Told ya," Suigetsu says cheerfully. "Just relax, okay? You'll sleep better if you do." His hands are still working their way up and down Naruto's back, and he's enjoying the feel of the muscles moving beneath his fingers, and the way Naruto arches his back, pushes into the massage greedily, with the air of someone discovering something entirely new and relishing it.

His hands dip lower, brushing against Naruto's hips, then slide up again along his sides, fingers slipping around just far enough to fleetingly touch the edges of a belly not quite as sharply muscled as his own. He doesn't try to go further than that, not now, when there are contented little noises slipping out of Naruto's mouth every so often and he's entirely relaxed beneath Suigetsu's hands.

Naruto doesn't object, either, to the way Suigetsu's arms touch him along the way, or to how close Suigetu is behind him, close enough that their legs touch now and then. If Suigetsu had been so inclined, he could probably have rubbed his entire body up against Naruto's, but that would be a pointlessly risky thing to do, more likely to create a backlash than any of the reactions he'd rather get.

Suigetsu doesn't want to spook Naruto right now, not when Naruto's just getting used to being touched by him. This is enough, just teasing the very edges of his luck rather than pushing it all the way into the yawning crevasse waiting just out of sight if he goes too far.

Besides, it's actually kind of hot to hear the noises Naruto makes when the tension's worked out of his muscles; it's like getting a preview of how he might sound in bed, Suigetsu thinks. He gets to be close, and get his hands on Naruto, and listen to him; there's really no need to feel as if he's missing out on anything, not when the fun's only just beginning. He grins to himself and slips a hand up along the nape of Naruto's neck, fingers digging lightly into the bottom of his scalp, and notes with interest the way this makes Naruto's head fall back lazily, eyes closed.

He stops only when he hears footsteps approaching, and even then it's with a light squeeze to Naruto's shoulders to let him know it's over, before drifting away from him to watch him from a distance. The greatest measure of success is that Naruto leans back against the edge, eyes still closed, and doesn't even look to see who's come in, his face a little flushed.

Their newcomer, a local, outstays the both of them, but Suigetsu is undaunted.

He just waits until it's getting dark to scrounge together a present, and then taps lightly on Naruto's door.

"Hey," he says, as the door opens, "somebody told me you forgot to eat, but they had cup ramen so I brought you some?"

Naruto's face lights up. "Wow, thanks!" And it's that easy, really, to get access to Naruto's room here.

Suigetsu sits beside him, watching Naruto polish off the serving of ramen, and his gaze dips down a little lower. Naruto looks a little... disheveled, as though getting dressed had been a hasty response to the knock on the door, and the details are worth thinking about.

"Hey, I didn't interrupt you, or anything, did I?" Suigetsu teases.

Naruto goes beet-red, and fumbles with the mercifully empty ramen cup, dropping it. He looks panicked and kind of guilty, and it makes Suigetsu grin all the more.

"Oh man, I _did_ , didn't I?" He laughs, reaching out and hooking a finger into Naruto's waistband. "You want me to make it up to you or something?"

He hadn't thought it possible for Naruto to get any redder, but steam is very nearly coming out of the poor guy's ears, and he's sputtering a little without actually saying anything.

"Oh, wow... hey, you weren't thinking about _me_ , were you?"

Naruto jumps a bit, and stares at him with wide eyes. "How'd you know?" He claps a hand over his own mouth as those words slip out, betraying him.

"I'm good at guessing. Good at some other things, too." This is about the point where, if it's going to happen, Naruto might freak out and try to kill him, but Suigetsu figures it's worth the risk. He leans in and kisses him, and there's a moment where everything seems to freeze, before Naruto's kissing him back.

Being married is good for Naruto - somewhere along the way he's learned how to kiss pretty well, Suigetsu thinks, and there are worse things a person could taste like than ramen, the hints of spice and salt from its flavouring making things interesting without being overwhelming. Besides, Naruto has an arm around him now, pulling him in even closer, and he's cooperating entirely with this, giddy with relief to find Naruto's this eager. The guy is impulsive, after all, and Suigetsu likes to think he's the sort of person people's impulses might point them towards, so if Naruto's this into this, he doesn't see any reason not to take things as far as Naruto will allow.

He slips a hand down, into Naruto's pants, and finds he's half-hard already - Naruto jerks sharply at his touch, and groans into those enthusiastic kisses, but doesn't try to stop him, just dropping one of his own hand down to grab Suigetsu's ass instead. Suigetsu strokes him, pulling his pants off entirely, and wishes for a moment he didn't essentially have a mouth full of very small knives, because it's not like he can blow Naruto, not without a lot of caution and patience that neither of them are really in the mood for right now.

They strip each other bare, Suigetsu's hands steadier about it than Naruto's, and then Suigetsu kisses Naruto again, bearing him down onto the bed and laying on top of him. A slow, teasing squirm makes Naruto shudder a bit beneath him, fingers digging into his back, and Suigetsu nips lightly at Naruto's neck, and that gets an almost frustrated whine.

"Go on, harder," Naruto's panting, eyes a little glazed. "I heal fast, go on -"

With a prompt like that, who is Suigetsu to resist? He digs his teeth into Naruto's shoulder, hard enough to draw blood, and Naruto lets out a shaky breathless moan that has words like 'yes' and 'please' and 'fuck' tangled up in it along the way.

 _You glorious kinky bastard,_ Suigetsu thinks delightedly, biting down again, leaving a second set of fang-marks beside the first, and getting an even shakier and more desperate moan, feeling Naruto's cock twitch where it's sandwiched between their bodies.

He shifts his weight a little, reaching down, and pressing a half-hydrified finger against Naruto's ass. Amid Naruto's very vocal sounds of approval, he bites down again, and as Naruto arches into it, Suigetsu slips a finger inside him easily. As long as he keeps up his jutsu and creates a constant watery surface, he doesn't even feel any resistance in the process.

As his teeth prick the skin around a nipple and his tongue plays with it, Suigetsu lets a second finger merge with the first and then separate again once they're both inside, twisting them and turning them in ways nobody with normal bones could manage. Naruto's moans are ragged now, utterly desperate and wonderfully filthy to hear, and every time Suigetsu finds that sweet spot inside him his hands spasm a little on Suigetsu's body.

It's amazing, and Suigetsu's nowhere near done with Naruto yet. As he bulks up his fingers with his jutsu, he feels Naruto pushing greedily into his touch, hears his voice turn breathier with every half-voiced plea for more, and beneath his other hand, the head of Naruto's cock becomes more slick. Suigetsu shifts his body further, kneeling between Naruto's legs, and looks up into that whisker-marked face to see Naruto nodding, eyes wide, lips shaping yet another 'please', and then Suigetsu's pulling his fingers away and lifting Naruto's hips, easing his cock slowly into Naruto's ass as his own lower body becomes translucent in its semi-hydrified state.

Naruto's voice catches in his throat, and his hands scrabble for a grip on Suigetsu's shoulders. In the dim light, his eyes don't look quite so blue anymore, and Suigetsu decides he really doesn't want to know if there's a Tailed Beast getting off on this as well, or even just paying attention. It's probably just dilated pupils, anyway, darkening Naruto's eyes on account of his lust, and that's all Suigetsu's going to think of it. There are plenty of more interesting things to think about, anyway, like the heat and friction and tightness around his cock, and the way Naruto sounds like he's on the verge of begging again as Suigetsu's thrusts drive into him, shaking his body with each one.

Grinning wickedly, Suigetsu draws further upon his hydrification, cock beginning to expand further, longer and thicker with every thrust until he's certain that Naruto's stuffed as full as his body can possibly take. For his part, Naruto greets this with sounds edging into the realm of whimpers, the noises forced from his throat between urgent clumsy kisses that leave little cuts on Naruto's lips - but he doesn't seem to care at all, just clutching at Suigetsu and trying to meet his thrusts with movements of his own.

Suigetsu can taste the hint of blood, and it doesn't dissuade him - if anything, it encourages him to be rougher, since Naruto's up to it and loving every moment of it, judging by his reactions. One hand is being used for balance and support, but the other's between them, matching the pace of his thrusts with its movements on Naruto's cock.

At last, he sees Naruto's eyes go even wider, hears a moan that trembles as Naruto's voice cracks under the strain, and feels the shudder of Naruto's body beneath his as he comes. With a few more thrusts, each of them drawing a gasp from Naruto, now clearly so sensitive the impact is doubled, Suigetsu groans and slips over the edge himself, his body shrinking slowly back to its normal state.

Gradually, he eases himself out as Naruto winces a little, and looks Naruto over. The marks of their encounter are already beginning to fade, the healing process beginning while Suigetsu watches.

_He wasn't kidding, he really does heal fast._

Naruto lies there, legs splayed, on his back, panting. His eyes are closed, and he's smiling dreamily, clearly still in a happy daze after what he's just done. He doesn't speak, or do anything but shift into a slightly more comfortable position. As Suigetsu sits watching him, Naruto's breathing slows, and he actually looks like he might be drifting off to sleep. Suigetsu decides not to do anything to stop him; it'll save everybody a lot of the worry if Naruto just sleeps instead of going into a despairing 'what have I done' panic. This way, Suigetsu gets to enjoy the post-sex laziness a bit longer without any emotional turmoil, which is nice.

Once he's sure that Naruto's fast asleep, Suigetsu cleans him up and pulls a blanket over him.

He eyes Naruto thoughtfully. If he'd been inclined to kill the guy, this would probably be his best and possibly only chance, while Naruto's sleeping naked and helpless and they're far enough outside Konoha that he could make a run for it afterwards without being immediately caught.

But Hinata loves Naruto, she really does, and he knows that. It'd break her heart to lose him. She may have accepted a view of the world in which it's all right for her to have sex with someone else, but Suigetsu knows she still loves Naruto wholeheartedly. 

He'd never see her again, if he were to do something like that, and she'd probably blame herself for the rest of her life for her lover murdering her husband.

Suigetsu couldn't do that to her. He _won't_ do that to her.

Naruto's not that bad, anyway, he thinks, not worth assassinating without a good reason, and he can't think of any good reason right now. Even if he does think of a reason later, he probably won't get a chance like this again.

So... Naruto will survive.

At least after what they've just done, whatever outcome follows is unlikely to be any of the ones Suigetsu has been trying to avoid.

Maybe Naruto will feel too awkward to be around him anymore - that's okay, he can live with that. But then again, maybe he and Naruto will come to some arrangement, and Suigetsu will have to find a lot more ways to budget his time. That's definitely okay too.


	11. Judgement And Suspicion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sasuke has some conversations he doesn't want to have, judgement abounds, and a bath is exploited.

Sasuke isn't expecting Naruto to show up at his door today, but there he is, looking oddly distracted. Whatever it's about, it's probably a good thing Suigetsu's out right now, though Sasuke would prefer not to speculate regarding how Suigetsu is currently occupying his time.

"Hey, Sasuke, need to talk to you."

There doesn't seem to be much choice but to let Naruto in, though Sasuke notices that Naruto's looking around to make sure there's nobody else around. He sinks into a chair, head in hands, and then looks at Sasuke again.

"I've done something really, really stupid," Naruto informs him, his voice very guilty.

"What is it this time?" Sasuke fights the urge to roll his mismatched eyes, and sits down opposite Naruto.

"I... well, uh... you shouldn't've brought your buddies here to Konoha." Naruto has transitioned smoothly to indignation, but wilts at Sasuke's unimpressed stare.

"It's done. They're here. Why are you complaining."

It's the Suigetsu thing, isn't it. But what could Naruto possibly have done that's got him in such a state? The first prickles of concern creep along Sasuke's spine as he wonders if Naruto has killed Suigetsu, but Naruto's next words put that concern to rest, only to replace it with a shock so deep that all Sasuke can do is sit there, blinking slightly.

"That Suigetsu guy... he, uh... we... kinda... had sex."

Silence reigns for quite some time.

 _What the hell have you done, Suigetsu?_ When Sasuke had envisioned the headaches that might come from all this, he hadn't predicted _this_ one. In a warped sort of way, he has to give Suigetsu credit for being thoroughly original about the kind of disaster he's creating for himself, but mostly Sasuke just feels a bone-deep exasperation and weariness.

Eventually, Naruto is the one to break the silence. "I didn't mean to, but he was there and it was really good but I didn't know what to do now -"

Sasuke holds up his hand to stop him.

"Did you trip and fall on his dick."

"Sasuke!" Naruto protests, looking shocked.

"Did you."

"Well, _nooooo_ , but..."

"Did he trip and fall on yours."

"No..."

"Then you meant to."

Naruto twists his hands together so much that the bandage covering the replacement comes unwound a little. "I didn't _plan_ to," he insists instead. "Anyway, what do I do now?"

"I don't know. That's your problem." Sasuke shrugs. "I didn't want to know. I still don't."

"You're such a jerk," Naruto grumbles.

 _I'm not the one cheating on my wife,_ Sasuke thinks, but doesn't speak. He's not really interested in getting into that debate. Instead, he says, "It's still your problem."

When Naruto leaves, Sasuke sighs, and goes to make himself a cup of tea. He's not looking forward to talking about this with Suigetsu later, but he supposes he'll have to. Right now, he wishes he'd just kept traveling with Jūgo, out beyond the village, where the only problems facing him are ones he can actually try to do something about.

Maybe they ought to leave again soon, get away from Konoha? Jūgo would probably like that, and they could leave all these complications behind. It would be better out there.

It's worth some thought, at least.

 

* * *

 

Hinata is taking her time with her bath, today, luxuriating in the tub. This has a lot to do with the fact that there's an invisible watery hand between her parted thighs, caressing her in all the ways she likes best. She's learned not to think about the exact number of fingers, or the hand positions, or where the rest of the body is and how normal arms would be tangled up with her and each other by now.

The normal rules don't apply to Suigetsu.

In more ways than one, really, Hinata reflects, sighing and spreading her legs a little wider for him, and feeling more fingers enter her in response.

She can't ever undo what she's done, and revealing it would cause so much pain that she can't bear to do that, and so she's had to accept that this is something she just has to keep as a secret. And from there, since the secret already exists, since she's never had anyone make her feel this good before, she's found herself coming back to Suigetsu over and over.

She doesn't _love_ him, but she likes him, and she craves the kinds of things he can do to her in bed - or out of it, for that matter, since they don't seem to get as far as the bed most of the time. He's special, somehow, as though there's just one exception to all the rules and that exception has come to her and told her that she's desirable, that someone can want her and be wanted by her without pining and waiting for years.

Hinata's loved Naruto since she was a very small child, has attached her purest feelings to him, has let him stand as her inspiration to keep moving forward in life, but... that love had come to her before she'd been old enough to know about lust. And know here she is, loving and desiring her husband, loved and desired by him, but discovering that she can lust after someone even more than Naruto. Her hormones have finally got a vote, and they've instituted a dyarchy. When her choices are guilt, recrimination and sadness, or concealing the truth for the sake of happiness and pleasure... she's been tempted, and she's succumbed.

When she's with Naruto, the sight of his smiling face stills her tongue - how can she shatter his happiness by confessing what she's done? When she's with Suigetsu, her body makes its demands, and she listens. It's only when she's alone that she questions herself, and she's seldom alone these days.

She isn't alone right now, in any case, and Suigetsu is assiduous about pleasing her.

A touch like a kiss presses against one of her breasts, and Hinata looks down, but sees nothing but the water. She bites her lip, shivering a bit as an unseen thumb toys with her clit, circling it, touching it above and to the sides, never giving her a chance to get desensitised to a prolonged touch. He's teasing her, with an attention to detail she both loves and finds maddening to experience.

"I want to see you," she whispers, and watches the water ripple as Suigetsu's face rises out of it to kiss her.

"Mm, it's not fair, is it, if I can see you, but you can't see me?" he asks, with a quick grin, kissing her again repeatedly.

His position shifts, and now she can see him, rubbing his cock against her until she squirms to try to make him go further. His laugh, quiet and close to her ear, raises goosebumps on her skin, and a soft little moan escapes her as he does settle himself inside her at last. She knows what's coming next, too, and waits, breathless with anticipation, as he begins to grow. She's not sure she'd be able to take so much right away, not if he were like this all the time, but this special little trick of his that lets him change his size once he's already in her allows her to adjust, and the end results are always amazing. If he were to push it too far, he might be able to hurt her, but he's always been so careful not to do that.

Suigetsu's thumb brushes against her bottom lip, and then across her cheek, and he kisses her once again, sweet and lingering, until she's tingling and giddy and so very ready for more. He's moving so slowly, drawing everything out, making her feel every single sensation, not letting her miss any of it. He can be quick with her sometimes, and it's great, but today, he's taking her time, and she feels all the more appreciated for the care with which he touches her.

"Is today special?" she murmurs, nibbling at his neck, knowing that'll make his hips jerk and give her a few sharper thrusts.

He laughs shakily, quickening his pace at that kind of prompt, and runs his fingers through her hair. "Days are pretty ordinary, but you're special, and I feel like spoiling you a bit."

The little flutter she feels at that is half affection, half anticipation, because if Suigetsu's normal attention to detail doesn't constitute spoiling her, she's not sure how much spoiling she can actually take.

He's so precise, the way he moves, able to control everything while they're in the water, and he keeps going reading her reactions, slowing now and then to draw everything out further, until all Hinata can do is tell him - beg him - to give her what she wants. She blushes every time, and knows she does, but when she whispers "let me come, _please_ , _Suigetsu_ , let me come" in his ear, she hears him moan, and he gives her everything she's begging for, driving her onward to her orgasm without tormenting her any further.

She knows he's come as well, by the end of it, knows he'd been holding himself back just so they could come together, and even while she's still panting, she draws him into the most appreciative kiss she can manage. Aftershocks still ripple through her nerves, and he holds her through all of them, caressing her body with gentle hands. He really is spoiling her today, it seems, and she feels like she's glowing beneath all this gentle affection.

Once she's caught her breath, though, his touch becomes more provocative, and he grins at her. "Ready for more?"

Hinata nods, pulls him closer, and kisses him soundly.

He takes full advantage of the time they have, and it's only after he's coaxed her to her climax three more times that she has to call a halt. Even then, he's solicitous, rubbing her muscles until they relax, helping her to get to bed. She wishes, just for a moment, that she could sleep in his arms, and wake with him, and do this all over again, but their time has its limits, and so do their bodies.

Instead, once Suigetsu is gone, it's Naruto who comes home, and crawls in bed beside her, looking as though he's had a very long day.

She kisses him, and lets him pull her closer, and feels her mind shift back to her happiness to be around her husband, and her unwillingness to break apart the love they share.

When she whispers "I love you" in her husband's ear, she's reminding him, but she's reminding herself also of who she really is, what she's dreamed of all her life, how much Naruto really means to her. 

She's telling the truth. It would probably be easier on her conscience if she weren't.

 

* * *

 

Shikamaru is certain something's up.

Suigetsu is from Kirigakure - the old Kirigakure, with its secrets and bloodshed, and he's been associated with Orochimaru - the exact details matter little to Shikamaru, compared to what habits Suigetsu might have acquired there. He'd been a willing participant in Sasuke's team, which had put itself on the list of international criminals in the most dramatic way possible, and had never been heard to disavow any of Sasuke's plans that Shikamaru's aware of, not even now that Sasuke himself has gained a pardon and made it clear that his interests are once again aligned with those of Konoha. The man gives off an impression of barely-contained chaos, violence held back by the thinnest of threads, and Shikamaru doesn't trust him.

He's been cosying up to Naruto, lately, and Shikamaru might have been annoyed by the potential ulterior motives of getting friendly with a future Hokage, but there's something more there, something unsettling in the way Suigetsu watches Naruto.

And he's been seen making friends with Hinata. He's been friendly with both of them, in fact -

\- but never together, only separately.

That's strange, and Shikamaru dislikes strange. He finds it suspicious.

He hasn't gone to Kakashi yet about it, as Hokage, because he wants something more concrete to report than 'he gives me a funny feeling,' but if he finds something... Whatever it might be, he's going to have to deal with it, because Naruto is naive and doesn't like the thought that any of his friends might possibly be looking to betray him.

Even the Sasuke incident hasn't changed that - if anything, it's made it worse, because Naruto now seems certain that anyone who's wavering will come around if they're just persuaded insistently enough.

It might be, Shikamaru thinks, that he will have to solve this himself. Quietly, discreetly, and conclusively.

He doesn't want to jump to conclusions yet, though, not when Sasuke's friends all seem to be trying to integrate into the village to some degree, and have made friends along the way.

Suigetsu is working for Tenten, and they appear to be getting along well; he's been forming odd friendships both within and outside his own age group, including with Shikamaru's own former teammates. He's even friends with _Shino_ , for goodness' sake, and Shikamaru has no idea how the guy would have managed that one.

Karin is less popular, thanks to that personality of hers, and people know already never to invite her and Karui to the same social functions, because there's already been some friction there. Oddly enough, Temari appears to like her, and Shikamaru has heard them talking now and then about all sorts of things, and there are reports from the medical personnel that describe her as sharp-tongued but incredibly valuable when there are difficulties regarding the proper methods to administer various medicines. Shikamaru doesn't know yet if Karin could be credited with saving lives, but she's certainly improved the quality of a fair few with her contributions in that field.

And then there's Jūgo. Sasuke's lover. His berserker impulses would be a cause for serious concern if he were ever far from Sasuke for long, but they're almost always together, and Sasuke has firmly guaranteed to everyone that he's capable of restraining Jūgo if the need should arise. In spite of that, Jūgo is gentle, soft-spoken, surprisingly restful to be around, and people always seem to start liking him if they're around him for long enough. Even Shikamaru has to admit he kind of likes Jūgo - he's incredibly straightforward, entirely genuine, and it's easy to know where his interests will lie and what he'll do by simply paying attention to whatever is going on with Sasuke. He doesn't create additional complications, which is refreshing.

They do, however, all seem to possess some vestige of team loyalty, though part of that is probably a combination of shared experiences and natural inclination to group up according to their mutual outsider status. And Sasuke is loyal to them, in return; it's difficult to call anything about Sasuke's opinions open, but insofar as one can, he is openly invested in the wellbeing of his team.

All of these things mean that even if something odd is going on, Shikamaru will have to be careful, and not make a fuss until he has reliable proof that there's something worth making a fuss about.

He'll wait, and watch, and make sure.

 

* * *

 

Something weird is _definitely_ going on with Suigetsu, but Karin refuses to care enough to look into what it might be. She's still a little annoyed, because the last time she'd employed her most foolproof method of getting Suigetsu out of the way, by reading aloud from her medical textbook, Sasuke had quite firmly told her to stop doing that.

And then he'd gone out to find Suigetsu, and bring him home, talking quietly to him all the while, and had even sat with him until Suigetsu had gone to sleep.

Even though she's been picking up a few hints that Sasuke's exasperated with Suigetsu over something, he's still apparently unwilling to let her use the most effective techniques for making Suigetsu walk away.

It would be infuriating if it weren't so, well... _sweet_. Even though it's Suigetsu and he obviously doesn't deserve it, it's sweet to see Sasuke feeling like he's up to kindness again, after the dark place he'd been in once upon a time.

The house is a better place to live in when Sasuke's in a good mood, so Karin has been forced to resort to less intense methods of securing Suigetsu's departure when she wants that. Even insulting him doesn't seem to work that well, these days; he just laughs, the horrid fanged pest that he is.

He seems awfully smug sometimes, so it might be that some absolute fool of a woman - or man, for that matter - has had the bad taste to indulge in Suigetsu's company on an intimate basis. Karin doesn't really want to know whose judgement would be that poor, except possibly to shun their company.

It's not as though she's envious or anything, really, though - she has a perfectly satisfactory life of her own and the fact that she isn't being nauseatingly coupled-up with anybody doesn't matter in the least. Besides, anything Suigetsu is involved in is bound to be an absolute disaster, so even if she were to envy someone their relationship, it certainly wouldn't be Suigetsu she'd be envying.

Anyway, she's good at finding out secrets, so even if he wants to go sneaking around, she could find out if she really wanted to. She just doesn't care enough to do so.

Karin can go out and do whatever she wants, whenever she wants, and just to prove that, she rather thinks she might go out drinking with Sakura tonight. She'll be having a perfectly nice time out there, and it doesn't matter in the least what anybody else is doing.

Her life is just fine how it is.

 

* * *

 

It takes Sasuke a while to be alone with Suigetsu again, in a circumstance in which he can actually talk about this current headache; the last time they'd been alone, Karin had just sent Suigetsu off into the streets with his mind a mess of razor-sharp memories, and Sasuke's not cruel enough to try to tell him off when he's like that. He'd reprimanded Karin, and gone out to bring Suigetsu home, and had kept him calm until the dazed state had passed, just as Jūgo sometimes had to do for him, and then he'd let Suigetsu rest.

A few days later, though, he is finally home alone again when Suigetsu returns from some endeavour best not imagined, and gives him a long look.

"Naruto. Really."

Suigetsu blinks, looking taken aback.

"He told me." Sasuke's answering the question he can see on Suigetsu's face, without waiting to hear it spoken aloud. " _Why_?"

Suigetsu recovers, then, and grins at him. "Well, I did kinda wanna see if I could," he admits, all candour, "and it was the one thing I could think of that'd make absolutely certain he wouldn't suspect me of trying anything with Hinata." There's a shrug, and a laugh, and Suigetsu continues, "Even if he'd said no, he woulda thought of me as into him, and that'd control how he'd think of me and what he'd suspect from me. Not that I minded his saying yes, really." This time, Suigetsu's laugh is entirely too filthy for Sasuke's peace of mind at this time of day.

Put like that, though, it does make some kind of very warped sense, insofar as anything about this makes sense, but this is still a catastrophe in the making, and Sasuke's not sure if Suigetsu actually fails to see that, or if he's ignoring it in favour of trying to get everything he can out of the situation while he can.

"Don't tell me about any of it," Sasuke says firmly. "I don't want to know."

"Okay, okay, I won't," Suigetsu agrees, with a suspicious degree of amiability. "Don't worry, Sasuke, I'm pretty sure I've got everything taken care of. If anything happens, I'll handle it."

"You'd better." Shaking his head a little, Sasuke turns to go to bed. Jūgo will be back any minute now to join him, so he might as well get comfortable and wait for him there.

As he lies there, Sasuke hears Suigetsu making his own preparations to go to bed, and wonders just how many things are likely to go wrong, and how soon they're likely to happen.


	12. Pushing His Luck

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everybody gets a little bit of something... or a lot.

Baths have come to be one of Hinata's favourite times of day, really, and she feels as though she can't possibly be blamed for that. She's leaning back in the tub, her arms holding onto the sides for support, head tilted back, appreciating the experience of having a lover in the water who can do so much to her without even being in solid form.

Suigetsu's fingers and tongue are busy between her thighs, and Hinata bites her lip to hold back a whimper of pleasure. He likes to take his time with her, she knows, where possible, and she suspects the sight of her exhausted after a long session pleases him in all manner of ways.

Her hips jerk a little, but that unseen touch isn't hindered by her movements, flowing with the water and staying right where she wants him to be. Hinata's hands clench on the rim of the tub, and her eyes go wide as Suigetsu toys with her clit. This time, she does whimper aloud, and then again, louder, as he works all the more, as if encouraged by the sound.

She doesn't hear the front door opening, or the sound of footsteps. It feels too good, and she's moaning in appreciation, face flushed, feeling the first little quivers run through her body.

Hinata _does_ , however, hear the bathroom door as it clicks open, and she sits up, eyes going wide, one hand dropping as if to push away someone who has no solid head to push on.

Naruto is standing there, in the doorway, looking at her, and through her panic she realises he's beet-red and that the bulge in his pants is visible even from here.

"Oh - ah - _Naruto_ -" she stammers, as red as he is.

"I, um... thought I'd surprise you. By coming home early." Naruto slowly approaches the bath, nearly tripping over his own feet. "I didn't mean to, you know, interrupt anything..."

 _He thinks I was just touching myself_ , Hinata realises, amid a surge of relief. "That's all right," she tells him, her voice still a little shaky.

"So, uh... do you... want company?" Naruto gives her a hopeful, sheepish smile.

Looking into his eyes, she feels that warm melting rush of affection all over again, and nods. With a mental apology to Suigetsu, she beckons to her husband, who hurries closer, struggling to remove his clothes.

As he steps into the bath, she shifts to make room, and pulls the plug out with her toes.

It looks like an accident, a case of just not paying enough attention, but Hinata watches the water level drop unusually quickly before she puts the plug back in. They can laugh it off, something like this, and top the water up, and Hinata can relax now.

Naruto kisses her more tentatively than she's used to, and his hands are so very gentle on her body.

"I gotta make it up to you," he mumbles against her breasts. "Been away so much, leaving you alone..."

"You're doing it for Konoha," Hinata points out, stroking his hair and his cheek.

"I know... well, now I'm doing this for _you_."

He pulls her closer, shifting their positions, and Hinata straddles his lap, smiling. In spite of that little scare, she's still so ready; there are things she needs right now and Naruto seems eager to give them to her. She sinks down onto him with a soft sigh, and shifts her weight until he's positioned just right. Between slow thrusts he kisses her, and she lets herself think only of Naruto, only of the moment they're now sharing. Right now, nothing else matters.

He may have said he was making something up to her, but she has things to make up to him too, and it eases her heart to see the dreamy look in his eyes as he moves inside her.

"I love you," she whispers in his ear, "I always have, and I always will."

"Hinata -" Naruto's back to red-faced, which is an accomplishment given how much of his blood is currently very busy elsewhere. "I love you too," he whispers back, his voice even quieter than her own.

They say no more after that, but they do look after each other, gentle and tender and slow to find their peaks, before they sit, holding each other, until the water's grown too cold to stay in.

When she goes to bed that night, it's in Naruto's arms, almost entirely comfortable.

She does hope, however, that Suigetsu had found his way out through the drains without too much inconvenience.

 

* * *

 

Suigetsu steers clear of Hinata's place for a few days after that close call. He may have been pushing his luck somewhat, perhaps, but who could have guessed that Naruto would choose that of all days to come home early? Suigetsu broods on that for a while, and buries himself in his work to avoid fretting any further.

It's not as though his work is boring, in any case; he loves it. He loves helping Tenten source new weapons, he loves testing out new weapons, and he's finding he loves recommending weapons to people too, being accepted as an authority on the subject who can help them find something special that suits their preferred combat style.

It's a good way to spend his time, regardless of the things going on in his personal life, and with such flexible hours as Tenten allows him, he hasn't missed a day of work.

Today, he's out at one of the training grounds, testing out the balance of a new sword with an oddly-shaped blade to see if it's worth ordering more or simply offering this one as a lone curio of limited effectiveness. He strikes and parries against imagined opponents, until a section of log, the kind frequently used around here for substitution techniques, is hurled into the path of his sword.

He cleaves through it without even a modicum of extra effort, and then turns to see who's decided to join him just now.

It's Naruto, watching him with a strangely conflicted expression.

"You want something?" Suigetsu asks, setting the sword down and putting his hands on his hips.

"I kinda... needed to talk to you," Naruto mumbles, coming closer. "You haven't, y'know... told anyone about that day, have you?"

Suigetsu blinks, and scoffs, "Of course not. _You_ have, though. I know you told Sasuke."

Naruto goes red. "Well, yeah, I had to ask somebody what to do... bastard wasn't any help, though, told me to work it out on my own."

"Well, that's Sasuke for ya. So why you gotta talk to me? Just making sure I'm not blabbing on to people about you practically coming on the spot once I got my teeth into you?" Suigetsu's grinning. He's pushing his luck again and he _knows_ it, but keeping Naruto off-balance seems like a good idea right now.

Already blushing, Naruto goes even redder, and swallows hard at that little reminder. " _No_! Well - _yeah_ , you gotta not tell anybody, but - _no_ \- anyway I _didn't_ -"

"You did and you know it." Suigetsu's grin widens. "Begged me for more. Come to beg for more again, huh? Is that it?"

The look Naruto gives him is indignant and desperate and so very needy that Suigetsu realises if he hadn't been on the mark already, his teasing might have pushed things over the line and ensured that that's _exactly_ what Naruto wants right now. He seems unable to speak, though.

"I'm not telling anybody," Suigetsu points out, moderating his tone, "and you're not telling anymore people either, are you? So it's already a secret, right? You're not getting anymore secrets if you go for this again, just the one you've already got."

He reaches out, touching Naruto's shoulder, and finds Naruto isn't resisting at all as Suigetsu slowly pushes him against the nearest tall stump. With his back against the wood, Naruto's staring at him, beet-red and wide-eyed and looking like his knees might give way any minute now. Naruto's tongue darts out to wet dry lips, and Suigetsu grins at him again.

"So. You want the fucking of your life?"

Still silent - something Suigetsu's willing to bet almost nobody's been able to cause for this long - Naruto nods shakily.

Suigetsu leans in closer, lowering his hand to palm the front of Naruto's pants, feeling Naruto's cock begin to stir at even the lightest touch. Their faces are so close now that he can feel Naruto's breath against his lips, and so he closes the gap, kissing Naruto fiercely. There's a moment of hesitation, and then Naruto's matching his enthusiasm, moaning into that kiss and Suigetsu's hand slips inside his pants and starts jerking him off.

Nobody else is due to use this training ground, Suigetsu knows, since he'd arranged for it to be his while he's testing the sword, so this is risky, but not unthinkably risky. It adds some extra spice, anyway.

He takes his hand away before Naruto can get off - already, because the guy seems like he's so eager practically anything could make him come - and holds Naruto there while Naruto whines and tries to rub his body against Suigetsu's to make up for the suddenly-ended sensations.

"Hey. Naruto." He waits a little longer, and then lightly bites Naruto's earlobe, leaving little pinpricks of blood behind and feeling Naruto's body jerk against his at the feel of it, before he adds, "Get in the water and I'll do things to you you'll never forget."

Suigetsu takes his time about pulling his own clothes off, savouring the way Naruto stumbles toward the stream, leaving a trail of hastily-shed clothing in his wake. He gives Naruto a chance to get into the water, and then follows, dissolving into it.

Naruto's standing there, looking excited and confused and unbearably horny, but Suigetsu doesn't make him wait any longer. Half-materialising behind him, he uses a jutsu that's been in his arsenal since the Kiri days, though he hadn't imagined at the time how infinitely pervertable it might be. Solid tendrils of water wrap around Naruto's wrists and ankles, and then Naruto's yanked off his feet and held up in the water, legs pulled apart from each other by the water whips Suigetsu's created. He struggles a bit, but it's purely instinct, because he falls still again quickly.

"See, when we're in here... there's practically nothing I can't do to you," Suigetsu informs him, reaching around to stroke Naruto's cock again. He can touch Naruto all over, like this, all at once, and enjoy the way Naruto squirms beneath all those different sensations. "And I can still do this." Semi-hydrified fingers work their way into Naruto's ass and find the sweet spot inside him, rubbing mercilessly against it.

The sound coming from Naruto grows more high-pitched at that, and more desperate, and Suigetsu takes a little longer to enjoy it before he's replacing his fingers with his cock. Tortuously slowly, he swells until he's stuffing Naruto to his utter limits, and gives him one sudden brutal thrust to show Naruto just how full he really is.

He seems to have caused Naruto to lose all power of human speech in the process, judging by the garbled nonsense that's all Naruto can respond with, but there's a pleading note to it, and Suigetsu answers the tone rather than the nonexistent words, settling into a punishing pace that has Naruto sobbing with pleasure in short order.

It's only then that Suigetsu bites down on Naruto's shoulder, drawing a ragged cry from him that tapers off into a helpless moan. He can taste blood in his mouth - the blood of a man who's loving every minute of this and who will heal entirely once they're done. He can be as rough as he likes, Suigetsu's discovering, because Naruto can do more than handle it - he can enjoy it without any hesitation.

Suigetsu's hand curls lightly around Naruto's throat, not hard enough to choke, but enough to feel Naruto's pulse and really know what he's managing to do to Naruto right now. There's a hint of a threat to it, that such a light touch could tighten at any moment, but Naruto doesn't seem to care - he just bucks into Suigetsu's thrusts, trying to get even more out of them, shameless and eager, voice swinging between moans and whimpers and hitting every point in between.

Drawing it out for as long as he dares, Suigetsu keeps Naruto from coming once, twice, a third time, and relents only when Naruto begins to beg him, voice hoarse as beautifully filthy pleas spill out.

Only then does he let Naruto come, listening to that one last moan and the way Naruto's voice cracks halfway through, just as he remembers it had before. Naruto slumps a little, only Suigetsu's support keeping him from sinking beneath the water entirely, and Suigetsu holds him there.

There's something he still wants to try.

A thumb brushes over the head of Naruto's cock, making Naruto whimper and twitch, so sensitive now that this must feel ten times as strong a sensation as it would otherwise, Suigetsu thinks. He keeps it up, though, until he's certain Naruto's one of the lucky ones for whom that sensitivity is pleasure, not pain, and he can feel Naruto's cock hardening all over again. Just as he'd thought, Naruto's jinchūriki stamina can be exploited in this area, too.

"Ready for another go?" Suigetsu teases, laughing close to Naruto's ear.

"F-fuck, _yes_ , do it -" Naruto's voice is very shaky, and it wavers all the more whenever Suigetsu's thumb moves.

"You got it." Suigetsu grins triumphantly. It's worth it, now, that he hadn't let himself come yet, since it means he's still entirely ready to go again. The first slow roll of his hips has Naruto shuddering, and he can feel the tightess around his cock, the way Naruto's body tenses and relaxes by turns.

He layers fresh bite-marks over old ones as he quickens his pace, with Naruto quieter now but no less eager. No doubt Naruto's vocal cords will heal as fast as the rest of him, but for now Suigetsu can savour every tremble and rasp in that hoarse voice, everything that reminds him he's made Naruto shatter his voice and his composure in one spectacular interlude.

Pushing Naruto onward, the water whips pulling Naruto's legs apart even further, Suigetsu slams into him over and over until, with a moan, he tips over the edge himself, spilling into Naruto, panting. His hand works more insistently on Naruto's cock, and shortly thereafter, he's coaxed Naruto into coming all over again, with barely enough voice left for an audible moan.

Slowly, wearily, Suigetsu floats Naruto to the shore and lays him down upon the bank, lingering next to him to watch as Naruto lies there, looking completely exhausted, his cock limp now where it rests upon one thigh. The marks of pressure on his arms and legs are fading away already, and the bite-marks on his shoulders are beginning to heal. Soon, there will be no evidence of what they've done, which is just as well, but Suigetsu discovers in himself some perverse wish that he could give Naruto a mark that would linger, something to remind him for days or weeks that Suigetsu had fucked him in ways no-one else ever had, and no-one else ever would.

It's enough, though, that Naruto looks as though all his strength has flowed away with the current. That's satisfying in and of itself.

Suigetsu climbs out of the water and gets dressed. He hesitates a moment, staring down at Naruto's naked body, already asleep even in this unwise place. While it _would_ be funny to leave him like that, he really can't afford to let Naruto be discovered by anyone else.

For a start, that would make it pretty unlikely that he'd get to do this again, and he _does_ really want to do this again, however many times he can get away with it.

Sighing, Suigetsu dresses Naruto, who doesn't even stir, and carries him off to hide him under some bushes until he wakes up.

Then, he retrieves the sword, and returns to the shop to make his report.

They really ought to order more, he thinks. It's unusual, but it works, so more is always a good idea.

 

* * *

 

Sometimes it seems like Suigetsu must be the hardest-working man in Konoha, even without an active shinobi position, Jūgo thinks. He certainly always comes home very tired, and most nights he doesn't even have the energy to pick fights with Karin.

Sasuke doesn't like it when they fight, but Suigetsu and Karin only really remember that about half the time... but these days, Suigetsu isn't really bothering with it at all. He seems happy though, which is nice. It makes the mood of the house so much better, and Sasuke is happier when all of them are happy, because he cares about all of them in their different ways.

Jūgo hadn't ever really expected Sasuke to care for him in this one, though, but he does, and Jūgo will never stop being grateful for whatever twist of fate had given him the chance to love and be loved by someone like Sasuke. It's given him a life where he can be happy, and make someone else happy, and where he can be kept from causing harm under the influence of the impulses that plague him.

He can trust Sasuke to be there for him, to keep him from hurting anybody, and that also means he can speak to people, some of whom are actually very nice. He even has a job now, working with animals, keeping them calm so they can be treated, so he's a part of the process of healing something, not hurting it.

That's new, and wonderful.

He isn't happy all the time, but he comes close enough that every single day is better than he'd thought his life would hold.

And at night there's Sasuke, in bed with him, so close and so intimate, with his hands bringing pleasure and not death to someone close to him.

Jūgo's not sure if Karin or Suigetsu are looking for that kind of happiness - he knows Karin had once had very strong feelings for Sasuke, but those don't seem to come up anymore, and Suigetsu's once-declared preference for cutting couples apart probably means he's not one to be in a particularly romantic state of mind. Still, Jūgo hopes that if they do want it, they'll both find people who can make them as happy as Sasuke makes him. They're his friends, after all, and he wants things to go well for them.

Right now, though, it seems like Suigetsu lives for his work, given how much energy he puts into it. Still, if that's what he enjoys, Jūgo wishes him all the best with it.

 

* * *

 

Suigetsu is a little more cautious, today, waiting until he's certain Naruto is out of the village on a mission before visiting Hinata. He's got all of his work done for the day, which means he can enjoy himself however he likes, and that means time with Hinata, in this case.

He wonders, just a little, what she would think of the fact that he's hooked up with her husband, but he _did_ promise not to tell, and he supposes that includes Hinata, even though he figures it would probably put paid to any guilt she might still happen to feel about their own affair. Unfortunately, it might also make her feel like she doesn't want Suigetsu or Naruto, in the worst-case scenario, and that would be messy and unpleasant and nobody at all would be happy then.

It's probably better to leave things as they are, he thinks.

After all, he doesn't even know if Naruto will come back for more again. It had probably been some of the best sex of Naruto's life, Suigetsu's guessing, but succumbing 'just one more time' might actually be only one time, or it might continue indefinitely. Suigetsu's not sure yet which way that one's going to go, but he kind of looks forward to finding out.

For now, though, it's Hinata he's going to see, and she deserves his complete focus, undistracted by any thoughts regarding her husband. That, then, is what he's going to give her, because someone like Hinata needs that kind of consideration. She also needs his discretion, and so he slips in unseen, in liquid form, to wait for her in her own home.

Once inside, he gets a look around, and realises she must have been in a hurry to get her baby son ready to be taken to whoever is apparently minding him now; there are still plates and cutlery and the like in the sink. It's unlike Hinata to leave dirty dishes, even for a little while. Humming very quietly to himself, Suigetsu washes up, dries everything, and puts it all away, before awaiting her return.

When she does come back, he's lounging on her couch, but he gets up to give her a hug as soon as she's closed the door.

"Hi?" Hinata says, with a startled little giggle.

"Hi, yourself." Suigetsu grins, squeezes her a little, and lets go. Getting a better look at her face, he notes, "You look tired."

"I was going to nap, but it can wait..."

He shakes his head, and takes her by the hand, leading her to her bedroom. "If you've gotta nap, you've gotta nap." Suigetsu winks, and sees her go pink as he continues, "We have a lot more fun when you're not already tired."

After giving this some thought, Hinata nods. "Would you... stay with me?" she asks, very tentatively.

"Sure," he says, and sees her face light up. This must mean more to her than he'd thought, really.

It's a treat to watch her peel off her clothes to get in bed, even if he's not going to be doing anything particularly raunchy with her just now, so Suigetsu stands there, smiling a little, until she beckons to him, and then pulls off his own clothes. With a bit of forethought, he tucks them under the bed. Even if someone does arrive unexpectedly, he can hide under there in puddle form, collect his clothes, and slip out, and nobody will see anything he doesn't want them to see. There always has to be some thought of discretion, for Hinata's sake and for his own, and today, this is it.

Besides, as clean as Hinata keeps her house, it's not like his clothes are going to get dirty under there.

He climbs into bed beside her, and she cuddles up to him, tucking her head beneath his chin. He wraps his arms around her, shifts a bit to get more comfortable, and lies there, looking down at her where she's settled into his arms. This is... really nice, actually. She's warm and she smells good and those are things he'd known already, but this kind of quiet moment, where neither of them are in the grip of lustful enthusiasm, isn't something he's used to. Now, the warmth of her and the scent of her glossy black hair, a shining fall of shadow that he admires where it lies across her skin, mingle into something gentler and more tender than he usually gets a chance to experience.

Stroking her hair, he hears her sigh contentedly, and listens further as her breathing settles into the slow pattern of a sleeper. Later, perhaps, there'll be sex, and everything will be as it usually is, but right now things are... different.

It's relaxing to lie here with her, and the sound of her breathing and the feel of her pulse are lulling him into a doze.

It's safe. He can wake in an instant if he needs to. Nobody will disturb her while she gets her rest. With the exception of the son she must pick up later in the day, she will be alone in her house for the rest of the day, if not longer.

They've taken an acceptable risk, and found an acceptable degree of safety.

After a while, the calculations regarding danger and precautions slow in Suigetsu's head, begin to crumble and drift apart, and he finds that he really is falling asleep.

He lets it happen, and is content.


	13. Shattered Secrecy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some things come out into the open, and some things disappear.

Hinata knows the signs by now; it had taken her longer to realise, last time, but this time she's certain of it. She's pregnant again. And this time... this time she's not as sure as she'd come to be last time.

It's probably Naruto's.

She _hopes_ it's Naruto's.

Most of the time what Suigetsu produces, if they're having that kind of sex, appears to be a bit closer to water, and since it's not always like that, she assumes he's adjusting both his body and its fluids to make things safer for everyone. So... the chances are higher that it's not his.

But she has to know.

The next time Suigetsu comes to her, she invites him inside, sits him down, and gives him the news - before Naruto, but it can't be helped.

"When we're together, do you, ah... _do_ anything, about that...?" she asks tentatively, and sees him nod.

"Yeah, I shift myself for it if I think it might be needed," Suigetsu says promptly. "I can't really promise you for absolute certain, but I _do_ try to make sure of that."

"Thank you." Hinata closes her eyes for a moment. She can handle 'not quite certain' where she couldn't handle 'not certain at all,' and she can get on with things and hope for the best. 

She feels Suigetsu's arms wrap around her, and his kiss on her temple, and then he tells her, "Congrats, okay? And good luck."

They stay like that a little longer before she has to get on with her day, at which point Suigetsu makes a polite retreat and leaves her to it. As he goes, she stands watching him, wondering about a man who can sleep with another man's wife, apparently without sharing the paroxysms of guilt that Hinata herself had experienced in the beginning, a man who can congratulate his lover on being pregnant with another man's child. Suigetsu is unusual, and she'd always known that, but right now she's realising that there must be a lot more beneath the surface that she's never really managed to understand fully. He's complicated, even though he acts like he's an open book - and might even believe he is one - and there are things Hinata just doesn't know about him.

Part of it is, of course, his having grown up in another village with a very different culture, and all the things he's seen and done in his life before coming here. Her Konoha-born peers are classmates, teammates, peers she's known since she was very small, and even with how shy she'd been back then, she's watched them all grow up, has seen them change over time. With Suigetsu, she sees only the end result, not the beginning, and none of the changes in between that mark the shift from one to the other.

The explanations are missing, the ones she's used to.

She cares about Suigetsu, she knows she does, but there are things that are still unknown.

Hinata wants to understand more, but she wonders how best to go about it. Perhaps, by spending some more time around his Taka teammates, she could get a better understanding on Suigetsu the way they know him? It would be nice to think that she could get some extra insights that way.

For now, though, she has other things to deal with. She drops by the hospital to confirm what she's already pretty sure of, just in case, and finds Sakura on duty there. Sakura's happy to help her out, and it doesn't take long to make it official, medically speaking, that Hinata has a second child on the way.

"You're going to be really busy," Sakura points out, and smiles brightly at her. "Maybe I can watch Boruto for you more often, when I'm offduty?"

"Thank you, that would help a lot," Hinata agrees. She knows how much Sakura enjoys looking after Boruto, even if she seems inclined to spoil him rotten sometimes, but practically everybody has that impulse when it comes to Boruto. And if there are places where even a worried mother might consider her child safe, they include being in the care of one of the best medical shinobi in the world, with her legendary strength and skill.

Nobody would dare try to take Boruto out from under Sakura's nose.

It's true that these are days of peace, and the other villages don't interfere the way they once had, but Hinata's earliest memories still include being stolen by a thief in the night and brought home again when he'd been caught, and then there's Hanabi, and what had happened to her only a few years before.

If Boruto has the Byakugan, it doesn't show in his blue eyes, but given his parentage, Hinata sometimes worries that some awful person might be tempted to try to grab him. She doesn't worry when Sakura's watching him, though, or even members of her own family, who will never let such things happen again.

Hinata goes home, and waits for Naruto, to give him the good news.

He's delighted, as he had been last time, and he's already trying to plan out where the baby will sleep, who it'll look like, what they're going to call it, whether it'll be a boy or a girl... She listens to him talking, a mile a minute, as he sits with his arms around her and one hand resting protectively upon her still-flat belly.

She turns to kiss him, interrupting the flow of speculations only briefly, and then lays her head on his shoulder and closes her eyes.

 

* * *

 

Naruto has just kept coming back, time and again, for the kind of good time only Suigetsu can give him, but lately he seems more concerned about it. They're sitting close together in the forest, with Naruto leaning against a tree and the soft promise of a stream whispering close by, when Suigetsu has to stop, taking his hand out of Naruto's pants.

"What's wrong?" he asks, tilting his head a bit.

Naruto flushes. "It's just, well... is this _right_ , y'know? While Hinata's gonna have my baby?"

Suigetsu considers this question. He doesn't really understand what all the fuss is about, but it seems to mean something to Naruto, so it's probably one of those Konoha moral standards or something. It's a bit weird to him to get over the guilt, only to rediscover it just because of a pregnancy, when Naruto and Hinata already _have_ a baby. Why should the part where this one's not finished yet change anything?

"Maybe you're doing her a favour?" he suggests. "I mean, this way you get off without her doing anything while she's busy being preggers?"

"I guess..." Naruto's wavering, as Suigetsu had suspected he might be. Nobody can enjoy the sex they've been having that much and think about giving it up without at least a bit of hesitation, surely.

"Well, you're already here today, anyway, so if you wanna change your mind about doing this again that's fine, but I'm guessing you don't wanna stop right now?"

He watches as Naruto glances down at the bulge in his own pants, and as he looks back up at Suigetsu, and sees the decision in his eyes even before Naruto says anything. Even as that pleading little "Don't stop?" escapes Naruto, Suigetsu's already obliging him, sliding his hand back inside Naruto's pants to stroke his cock, using the kind of firm pressure he knows Naruto likes best.

A quiet little sound stops them in their tracks, something like a footstep, something like a breath. They turn, both on high alert -

\- and see a deer watching them placidly from between the trees. It snorts quietly, and picks its way delicately through the forest, apparently not alarmed to have seen humans there. They watch it go, slowly relaxing.

Suigetsu laughs shakily. "Man, jumpy or what?"

He hears Naruto laugh, just a little, and turns to get back to what he'd been doing.

In the interests of experimentation, and also of forgetting that little fright, Suigetsu gives Naruto a curious look and asks, "Oi, those shadow clones of yours... you wanna make one right now?"

"Huh? Why?" Naruto blinks, frowning in confusion.

"'cos if you do, I'll let it fuck me while I fuck you."

Naruto's jaw actually drops for a moment, and then he's crossing his fingers over and creating a clone - which, since it's a copy of him as he is right now, also has a noticeable tent in the front of its pants.

Suigetsu's actually picked up lube, somewhere along the way, in case they don't get around to getting in the water or he feels like saving a little chakra. It will come in handy now, he thinks, fishing out the discreet little tube hiding in his equipment pouch. He's never offered Naruto the chance to be on top before, but it's probably about time, and the shadow clone counts because it's still Naruto, and he'll remember everything once it disappears.

It takes a lot more thought and manoeuvring to get a two-person threeway set up than he'd anticipated, but it's worth it, Suigetsu feels, closing his eyes for a moment as he feels the clone sink into his ass. He doesn't have to miss out on anything, this way. _And they tell people you can't have it both ways_ , he thinks, a little smugly.

""Go on," he tells the clone, over his shoulder, trying to keep his voice steady, and that second Naruto obliges. Every thrust moves his body, and transfers the effects through to the original Naruto, who squirms and swears and clutches at Suigetsu desperately. It's not perfect, not when Naruto's never been on this side of things before and neither of them have been with two at once, but it's pretty damn good, and it's bound to get better if they do it again.

Suigetsu _hopes_ they'll do this again - it's new and interesting and it's only fair for Naruto to be the one using up chakra once in a while, especially when he has so much of it to spare. Thoughts of fairness and chakra and everything else don't last very long, not when everything feels this good, and Suigetsu lets himself just stop thinking, exist purely in the moment, right up until that moment involves coming, and feeling and seeing Naruto come - two times over.

This time, they use the stream just to wash. Given the nature of so many of their previous antics, it's kind of a prosaic use for the water, but Suigetsu doesn't mind. He stays there, luxuriating in the movement of water around him, feeling entirely at home, until Naruto is gone, and then he dresses and goes on his way.

It's been a good day so far, and he's in a good mood that's bound to last.

 

* * *

 

Shikamaru has been putting the pieces together for a while now. He's been trying not to jump to conclusions, aware that there are some very unpredictable people involved, and even his ability to plan can fall apart if truly random elements enter the fray. Even a master of shōgi can be taken by surprise sometimes, he knows, because a strategist sees the world in patterns, and an amateur can move outside those patterns in their ignorance. He has to remain aware that logic and reason are patterns that he ought to fall back on, but cannot be caged by when trying to predict those who don't use that same kind of logic to guide their actions.

There could have been explanations for everything, that he just couldn't think of because it takes a mind without logic to think them up.

There could have been, but there _aren't_.

Not after what he knows has happened in the forest.

He hadn't really been expecting that one, he has to admit. If there was going to be some secret scandal or dark plot, that's not exactly the one he would have predicted.

What Shikamaru doesn't know is why. Oh, he knows Naruto has fans now, and people eager to insinuate themselves into his life, and Suigetsu has always seemed like something of a troublemaker anyway, but he doesn't know why Naruto would go along with it, when married to someone sweet and beautiful and loving like Hinata. There have always been men who've married and then had a lover on the side, he knows that from his studies of history, but _Naruto_ , of all people?

Whatever influence Suigetsu is exerting is dangerous, if it can sway someone like Naruto into leaving the moral path.

Shikamaru has vowed to do his utmost to see that Naruto becomes Hokage. He means to be the adviser Naruto can always count on to help him when his own naïveté keeps him from seeing what needs to be done. This is a problem Shikamaru hadn't expected to encounter, but it's one he might have to solve nonetheless.

If this gets out - if anybody discovers this - Naruto might lose his chance to become the Hokage in the face of the scandal that might follow. Shikamaru can't allow that to happen.

Suigetsu has to be stopped, by any means necessary. For Naruto's sake. For Hinata's. For the sake of a village that needs Naruto as its pure and shining hope, its Hokage-to-be. For the sake of a world whose peace and future prosperity is guided heavily by Naruto being a beacon in the darkness, a beloved and powerful figure whose good heart inspires and whose might in battle deters. If Naruto is disgraced, those things are at risk, and his disgrace or lack thereof rests upon the shoulders of one former criminal who doesn't even seem to care about the consequences.

This can't be allowed to become public.

Kakashi will understand, if Shikamaru has to take action.

Still... it might just be a single slip-up. If they're lucky, that's all it had been, one dalliance to get an urge out of Naruto's system that he'll move on from and be better than. Shikamaru hopes so, anyway. But if it isn't, he might be the one who has to deal with Suigetsu.

Would paying him off suffice? Maybe not. A long serious talk about the consequences of his actions? Unlikely.

Shikamaru will have to pay even closer attention to Suigetsu, and work out exactly how to deal with him.

 

* * *

 

The further along Hinata's pregnancy gets, the less time she and Naruto have for Suigetsu, but he doesn't mind too much. It just makes the few stolen moments all the sweeter.

He's sitting on Hinata's bed, watching as she brushes her hair, until he really can't stay put any longer. He gets up and comes over, wrapping his arms around her from behind and kissing her neck. "You look so good," he murmurs into her ear, running his hands over her breasts, already larger than they had been, and the swell of her stomach.

There's a child in there, one who'll greet the world in perhaps another three months. The thought's a little odd, really, but Hinata's so radiant just now and he knows from how much her son means to her that this new addition is bound to make her very happy as well.

"I do?" she asks softly, putting the brush down and turning in his arms, looking up at him with a smile that warms him just to see it.

"You really do. You're gorgeous." Suigetsu leans in and kisses her and feels her responding as gladly as ever, because being pregnant doesn't appear to dull her libido in the least.

They're beginning to have to adjust how they fuck, if they want to be comfortable, but it hasn't taken long to work out the details; he whispers a few suggestions in her ear, and she nods and lets him pull her onto the bed, shifting until she's on her side in his arms. If they're spooning, Suigetsu knows, Hinata tends to be a lot more comfortable, and it's nice for taking things slowly, the way he is now.

He lifts her upper leg just a little to make it easier, and slips into her, before moving his hands so he can touch her clit, her breasts, her belly... the only thing he can't do is kiss her, but that can wait until afterwards. He's slow and careful and as gentle as possible, not wanting to do anything that would cause her any problems, but her breathy little sighs and moans tell him it's all the better for it.

Her condition certainly doesn't make it any harder for her to come, apparently, and the feel of her muscles tightening around his cock is enough to push him the rest of the way as well. They lie there, still spooning, while their breathing and heart rates settle back down, and then he rubs her shoulders until she begins to fall asleep.

Only once she's sleeping does he slip out, trickling out of the house in puddle form and returning to a solid state in a quiet little alley close by. It doesn't smell as good as it used to, and Suigetsu suspects whoever cleans the streets around here is slacking off a bit. He hopes Hinata doesn't have to smell this, because the mingled odour of old food and cat piss and discarded cigarettes is offputting enough that she'd probably lose her appetite entirely.

Suigetsu stares in the direction of the house, thinking about Hinata, and tucks his hands into his pants pockets to walk on home.

 

* * *

 

They name the little girl Himawari when she arrives, a redfaced and wrinkled scrap of humanity with a piercing cry and fists that clench tightly around anything she's offered. She has her mother's jet-black hair, visible right from the start, unlike Boruto. Also unlike Boruto, she carries no trace of the whisker-marks on Naruto's cheeks.

"She looks like you," Naruto observes, entranced, holding out a finger for Himawari to grasp.

Himawari blinks up at him and coos, and Naruto leans down to plant a kiss on her forehead.

"Look at her eyes, wow," he observes, beaming. "Like somebody mixed up ours, y'know."

Hinata has to admit this could almost be correct. She knows her own eyes, Byakugan-white, sometimes look like they have hints of lavender in the right light, and Himawari's eyes are the palest purplish-blue she could ever have imagined. She doesn't really want to think about what that means right now, so she smiles and nods and agrees that it looks like a mix between their two different eye colours.

In any case, Himawari is beautiful, and healthy, and Hinata gets to take her newborn daughter home very soon thereafter. Her life is so much busier now, wrapped up in caring for her youngest, and so it's a couple of months before she sees Suigetsu more than in passing.

He slips into the house, as discreetly as ever, and she shows him the baby.

"I don't know," Hinata confesses, watching him, a coil of worry turning over in her stomach. "She doesn't look like him. Everyone says she looks like me, but... Suigetsu, is there anywhere the blue eyes might have come from?"

Suigetsu's expression is unreadable. After a while, he nods. "My father had blue eyes," he admits. "Saw 'em in the family photos. Really light blue."

"...Oh." Hinata stares down at her daughter, but she feels Suigetsu's hand come up to touch her hair.

"It'll be okay. Sure looks like she does take after you, after all."

"Well, I guess, but..." Her words trail off, and then Suigetsu's kissing her, very gently.

"It'll be okay," he repeats.

It truly seems he believes that, even when what might be his child is likely to grow up in a different family, never bearing his name, unable to acknowledge him. Hinata's eyes fill with tears at the thought. "I'm so sorry," she whispers.

"Hey, hey, it's okay, please don't cry," he cajoles, wiping the tears away as they slide down her cheeks. "Long as she's okay and you're okay, everything's fine."

He doesn't stay much longer, though, because there's only so much time Hinata has left before she has company again. As she watches him go, she promises herself that she'll go and speak to his teammates tomorrow, and try to understand the man who's now irrevocably part of her life.

She stands upon her doorstep, watching as Suigetsu disappears from sight. She can smell flowers in the air, and breathes the scent in appreciatively - until the wind changes, and a bitter stink of cigarette smoke reaches her.

Hinata sneezes, and retreats back into the house, closing the door behind her.

 

* * *

 

If there's one thing Sasuke hadn't been expecting today, it's Hinata at his door. She gives him a smile that looks a little anxious, and holds up a little bag.

"I brought something Hana wanted Jūgo to have, may I come in?"

Sasuke shrugs and nods, letting her in. He wonders if she's aware of what he knows about her. _Probably not_ , he thinks.

"It's a new kind of grooming tool for long-haired animals, I think," Hinata explains, setting the bag on Sasuke's table. "She said she wanted him to take a look and see if he's interested in using it, since so many pets will do whatever he asks them to."

"I'll tell him."

Hinata nods, looking around. "...You have a nice home," she observes, looking like she's trying to angle the conversation around to something. "And all of you live here together?"

"Yes."

"You must all be very comfortable with each other by now, then. Are there no fights? I think I heard once that Karin and Suigetsu don't get on very well..."

Jūgo is due home any moment now, and Sasuke can hear the footsteps that confirm it. He hadn't missed the way Hinata's voice had warmed as she'd said Suigetsu's name, and now he can guess why she's here. He is, suddenly, tired of the whole thing. No matter what, it seems they just can't stop involving him in their problems, even when he wants nothing to do with any of it.

"You came here to talk about Suigetsu." He sees her flush. "I know you're having sex with him." Sasuke would have said more, about how rude they're being, for dragging him into this mess, but he's interrupted by a startled noise from the doorway.

He looks up. It's not Jūgo who's arrived, this time.

It's Naruto.

It's Naruto, and he's standing there, looking shocked and hurt and so terribly dumbfounded that his mouth opens and closes a few times without any sound before he manages to say, "... _Hinata_? Is that true?"

Hinata looks like she's going to burst into tears.

Sasuke's eyes narrow, and he speaks up before Hinata can. "Why are you asking her that, when you're doing the same thing?"

This time, it's Hinata letting out a shocked exclamation.

Sasuke isn't finished. He looks between this errant husband and wife, and continues, "You're both having sex with Suigetsu. I didn't want to know. Everybody keeps telling me these things anyway. I didn't want to be involved. But here we are. You're both guilty. Are we done? I don't like being part of your secrets. And now I'm not. Go sort this out. Somewhere else. Not in my house."

"Bastard, what are you even _saying_ -" snaps Naruto, lurching forward and looking like he wants to punch Sasuke in the face.

Sasuke glances out the window. There's a potplant outside. His Rinnegan gleams, and suddenly the potplant is inside, but Naruto is not.

Naruto's swearing up a storm, but he's doing it outside the house now, at least.

Sasuke gives Hinata a pointed look, and she apologises tearfully before fleeing, and leaving Sasuke in a house that is, once again, quiet.

His headache is just beginning to ease when Jūgo comes home, but Jūgo isn't alone. He's brought Tenten, who looks concerned about something.

"Sasuke, Tenten says Suigetsu never showed up for work today."

For a moment, Sasuke isn't surprised. It's no wonder, if Suigetsu is out there trying to have more sex than anyone else in Konoha, that he might not be where he's supposed to be.

"He always shows up," Tenten says, twisting her hands together. "He's never missed a day, not one. Is he sick?"

Sasuke sighs, and goes to look in Suigetsu's bedroom in case there's some note left behind or something.

The bedroom's empty. The bed doesn't even look like it's been slept in, and almost all of Suigetsu's things are gone. The only ones that remain are strewn here and there, as if dropped by somebody who was packing in a hurry.

It's as if Suigetsu has decided, very suddenly, to run away from everything.

But it can't have been this recent confrontation, because Sasuke hadn't seen any sign of him in the house. He's just... _missing_ , probably since last night.

Why would he leave? This is the place he's more likely to retreat _back_ to if he thinks there's going to be trouble, where Sasuke might be able to protect him. Something must have happened, though Sasuke doesn't know what.

It's not like Suigetsu to leave without saying anything; even if he'd simply become sick of the whole mess, he'd have said something to Sasuke first. Sasuke knows that about him, without any doubt.

Sasuke might not be the only person who knows about Naruto and Hinata, though. That thought occurs to him, and he begins to worry a little for his fool of a teammate. Whatever has happened, he needs to find out.

He's not interested in losing a friend today, even if that friend _does_ have terrible taste in lovers.

Turning to Jūgo, Sasuke says, "Could you go and find Karin?" His Sharingan gleams crimson as it comes to life, tomoe spinning into place. "Tell her I need her help. It'll go faster if there's two of us. Or three, if you ask your birds."

He sighs, and looks around, the multitude of chakra signatures that make up the village filling his vision.

"We need to find Suigetsu."


	14. Picking Up The Pieces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone deals with the consequences of what they've done - and what others have done.

 One by one, Jūgo's birds return to him, having flown throughout the village in their search for Suigetsu. With each one, he has to report that they've seen nothing. Given Suigetsu's unusual abilities, it's perhaps not _completely_ surprising that he might be somewhere the birds can't see, but it's still not a good sign.

Sasuke has a headache.

He's standing on the roof of his house, trying to differentiate between all those chakra signatures. There are so many here, and in a village full of shinobi, he can't just look for one bright spark in a field of dim ones. It may be that his range is simply too small when he's not standing anywhere particularly high, so he glances in the direction of the cliff face, and begins to walk in that direction, something in his face ensuring that nobody tries to stop him or even speaks to him.

They can sense, somehow, that he's in no mood for social interaction right now.

Behind him, Karin is hurrying to keep up.

Sasuke says nothing until he reaches the cliff, and with a series of leaps, makes his way up until he's standing atop the stone face of the First Hokage. From here, he'll be able to see a lot further, he's sure of that.

Joining him, Karin closes her eyes and starts her own search, while Sasuke methodically scans the area, one direction at a time.

He's interrupted by Karin touching his arm and pointing. "I feel something, over there." She wouldn't lie, no matter her issues with Suigetsu, Sasuke's sure of that, not when she knows the situation is this important to Sasuke.

So he turns to look in the direction she's indicated, straining all of the perception at his disposal to hunt for whatever she's picked up.

There, beyond the village, is some flickering little bit of chakra, lurking beside the road, looking as if its owner is actively trying to conceal himself.

Sasuke doesn't know why Suigetsu would be hiding out there, but he's going to find out, right now.

They hurry back down, and Sasuke leaves the village via the main gate, asking Karin to hang back a little and keep looking in case she might pick up some sign of a reason for Suigetsu to hide. Her first report is of other chakra signatures here and there, but none that feel like they're any immediate danger, but she agrees to keep monitoring the area.

She looks angry at Suigetsu for starting such a fuss by running off, but Sasuke'd expected that. He's not angry, for his own part, because he's waiting to see what the cause might actually have been.

Making his way through the trees, Sasuke keeps his eyes on that one important chakra signature, which hasn't moved.

He wonders, for a moment, if Suigetsu is lying injured out there, with nobody to help him, but Suigetsu's very difficult to injure, and if he is, Karin's medical skills should do the trick.

What he finds isn't some wounded and pitiful body, but the crouching form of Suigetsu, watching the road through the trees, tension written in every line of him. At Sasuke's footfall, he whirls, eyes wide, a kunai in his hand, braced to defend himself, before all the fear and aggression vanish from his posture.

"Oh. It's you. That... saves me finding anybody trustworthy enough to send you a note, at least."

"A note." Sasuke eyes him. "Why would you need to send me a note?"

"Not really fair to go without saying goodbye, is it?" Suigetsu's gaze skitters away from Sasuke's. "I wasn't gonna avoid telling you, I just hadn't got around to it yet."

"Why are you leaving?" He's not used to Suigetsu being unable to meet his eyes, and doesn't like it. Even at the height of this whole stupid affair Suigetsu had still been able to look him in the eye, yet now he can't.

"I'm going home. Back to Kiri. He said my pardon extends that far -" Suigetsu stops himself short, too late.

"Who told you that? Did someone tell you to leave, Suigetsu?"

"...Yeah." Suigetsu looks away again, shoulders drooping. "That Nara guy. Said he'd tell the Hokage, otherwise, get it arranged that way. Said I could either leave now, on my own two feet, or wait for the Anbu to deliver me back there in a bottle."

He knows what Suigetsu has been through, what the threat of that kind of confinement would do to him. And Shikamaru has seen fit to _meddle_ , to drive off one of Sasuke's most loyal friends? _I wasn't even supposed to know,_ he realises. Why else would Suigetsu have been hiding while waiting for some suitable messenger, if not because he'd been meant to be on his way already? He'd been meant to flee into the world without so much as a goodbye, leaving everyone wondering what had happened to him, and if he hadn't valued his connection to Taka highly enough to stay back and wait, they'd never have been able to find him, because Suigetsu can make himself incredibly hard to track and would have been halfway to another nation by now.

By the time they'd thought to look outside the village, he'd probably have gone beyond even the range of Karin's sensory abilities.

They'd never have seen him again, and Sasuke would have been left to wonder if his friend were alive or dead, perhaps forever.

And he knows the kind of cold calculation that would see someone driven from the village. He's seen it before, and it makes him wonder how far down that path Shikamaru has gone. Would there have been Anbu waiting to pick Suigetsu off, once he was far enough away that no evidence would remain?

Sasuke's fist aches. He hadn't even realised he'd been clenching it. He has to unclench his teeth, too, before he can speak.

"Come back with me."

"But -"

"Shikamaru isn't in charge in this village. I'll sort him out. Come back." A pause, then. "If you want to." If Suigetsu's truly determined to go, he won't force him to stay. He won't chain him to this village with talk of bonds and obligations, not if Suigetsu genuinely wants to leave, and he might, if he thinks this whole business has gone so far that it can't possibly be fixed.

If he has to, Sasuke will escort Suigetsu to the border himself, just to make sure nobody tries anything.

"Naruto and Hinata found out about each other," he adds, just to make sure Suigetsu's deciding based on a full knowledge of the situation. "But I won't let them take it out on you even if they decide they want to."

"...Okay." Suigetsu lets out a long, slow breath. "Thanks. 'm sorry, Sasuke, I know you didn't wanna get involved in this, and here you are having to do shit like this."

"I don't have to. But I'm doing it." Sasuke shrugs slightly. He hates the whole situation, but he can't hate Suigetsu for it. "Let's go."

He leads the way back into the village, and nobody tries to stop him.

There's still an undercurrent of anger thrumming through his system, but Sasuke keeps it tightly contained. Whatever happens, he's going to make sure Shikamaru doesn't try anything like this again.

With Suigetsu trailing after him, he heads directly for the Hokage's office, knowing that's where he's most likely to find Shikamaru. Sure enough, there Shikamaru is, standing outside to hand a pile of forms to an assistant, but he turns and sees them coming. His expression, when he sees Suigetsu, is actually angry, disgusted, for a few seconds that anyone else might have missed, but Sasuke's Sharingan is still active, and he doesn't miss even the slightest twitch of Shikamaru's face.

He also doesn't bother with greetings. "You tried to drive Suigetsu out of the village."

Shikamaru recovers quickly. "I offered him a chance to avoid a scandal."

"You threatened him with forcible removal by Anbu." Sasuke's eyes narrow. "Did Kakashi authorise that."

"He would have, if I'd needed to do that, but -"

"You didn't have any authority to make that threat."

Shikamaru looks frustrated now. "Naruto will be Hokage. Something like this can't get in his way."

"Naruto's an adult. If he does something, he can deal with the consequences like anyone else," Sasuke says flatly. He loathes politics, and the idea of throwing someone like Suigetsu away just because he might be politically inconvenient disgusts him.

"Like you did?" Shikamaru hits back with that.

Sasuke doesn't take the bait. "Suigetsu hasn't done anything you can exile him for. If what he did was treason, then nearly a quarter of the village is probably treasonous. He hasn't broken the law. You can't punish him just because he might _get in the way_."

"The village needs -"

Once again, Sasuke interrupts him. "The village needs leaders it can trust not to betray its people. The village needs to be run according to its laws, not political puppetry and posturing about morals." Eyes practically glowing with anger, he stares Shikamaru down. "Don't do that again."

There's a moment of silence, where the world itself seems to be holding its breath, awaiting some response. If Shikamaru tries to justify himself _one_ _more time_ , Sasuke knows his anger might spill over. Konoha will never have another Shimura Danzō. He won't allow it. And if Shikamaru keeps going down this path, the spectre of that evil old man waits in his future, ready to lie and betray and murder, ready to use the people of Konoha as pawns to shape the village as he wishes it.

Before Shikamaru can respond, Sasuke adds, "When I brought Suigetsu here, and Karin, and Jūgo, they were promised places as citizens of Konoha. They have the rights of citizens. And that includes not being punished unless they actually break the law."

_And if it doesn't,_ his thoughts continue, _why did I even return to the village? Why did I believe Naruto when he said things would be different now?_

At last, Shikamaru breaks eye contact, looking away with a heavy sigh. "There's going to be trouble, you realise," he says, sounding weary and annoyed, but he sounds like that often enough that it seems like everything might be back to normal. It's a concession, even if it doesn't look like one.

"Then the people involved can deal with it. _Without_ anyone else interfering." Sasuke is very firm on that one. He can practically feel that Suigetsu's lurking behind him, unusually quiet, apparently unwilling to speak in his own defense on this one. In all likelihood, he feels like he'd just make it all worse if he were to say anything, and prefers to just trust Sasuke to handle it.

That's okay. Sasuke knows what he's doing here, and how to make sure this is sorted out for good.

For an ostensibly intelligent man, Shikamaru can come to some very foolish conclusions, though, like that it's his duty to save Naruto from himself, when when it comes to things Naruto's willingly chosen to do. Sasuke has merely warned him, this time, but he might go further if Shikamaru tries anything like this again.

At the moment, though, it looks like this confrontation is over. All the same, Sasuke makes a mental note to encourage Suigetsu to stay close to the house for the next few days, so that Sasuke can keep an eye on how things develop and make sure no part of the situation blows up unexpectedly.

He leads Suigetsu away from Shikamaru, hoping his headache will diminish soon.

He doesn't say goodbye.

But then, he seldom does.

 

* * *

 

There is an awkward silence in the Uzumaki household when Naruto and Hinata go home. Neither of them can really look at each other. Not even the sounds of their children are there to break through it, because both are currently in Hanabi's care right now. In one sense, that's convenient, Hinata thinks numbly. She won't have to carry her children back to her clan home in addition to whatever clothing and the like she might need to take.

Everything has fallen apart.

Naruto knows about her betrayal, but she also knows what he's done.

And then there's Suigetsu, who'd smiled and charmed her and turned around to sleep with the both of them.

How can she trust them ever again? How can Naruto trust her? All that time spent hiding the truth because she hadn't wanted to hurt him has only deepened the pain now.

She should have considered that right from the start, and she knows that. Deep down, she supposes she'd always known that, but had allowed herself to bury that thought beneath some base and simple sense of lust, some craving for new pleasures. It had been wrong, no matter how much she'd let herself enjoy it, and now the consequences are here to stay.

Naruto's sitting in the living room right now. He hasn't moved since he'd come back. He hasn't said a word.

Moving silently, Hinata retreats into their bedroom, and begins to stuff clothing into a bag. Even if she's done something dreadful, something shameful, she still has somewhere to go back to. For Naruto, this is all there is, now. So Hinata will have to be the one to depart.

She finds another bag, and starts packing it full of clothes for the children. They're going to need those. She suspects that Naruto won't even want to look at her for a while, so she's going to have to go.

They can work out arrangements for the children later.

At that thought, that mental image of their two lonely lives making contact only where necessary to transfer children between households, some inner valve snaps in Hinata's soul, and she feels her legs give way. Kneeling in the middle of her bedroom floor, face buried in her hands, she begins to sob, for all she's trying so hard to muffle it. Her nose is running, and the tears are coursing down her face, turning her into a mess of weeping and abject misery. Between the sobbing and the snuffling, she's louder than she wants to be, trying to stifle her noises so Naruto won't feel obliged to comfort someone who's just hurt him so very deeply.

She feels like throwing up, quite literally crying herself sick with the flood of self-recriminations and dire imaginings of a loveless and empty future in which she's lost everything and everyone, because once it starts, it just doesn't stop, and the faces of everyone she cares for twist in her imagination until they're masks of disgust, figures rejecting her utterly for what she's done. They'll hate her, all of them, she thinks; her friends will desert her, her clan will reject her completely, even her children will grow up despising her for being such an awful person.

That's how it works, isn't it? All you really have to do is fail, even once, to be the person you ought to be, and people can decide that you are worthless?

Hugging herself, Hinata stares into nothing.

She doesn't hear the door open, but she does hear Naruto when he speaks.

"You're... you're packing? You're _leaving_?" His voice is so raw that he must have been crying too, but she'd been too consumed by her own misery to hear it - and she castigates herself for inexcusable selfishness at that. "Are you... going to live with _him_?"

Stunned, Hinata looks up at Naruto. " _No_!" He looks awful. His face is red and blotchy, his eyelids are swollen, and he looks as if he's aged ten years in a matter of hours. "I'm... going back to my family," she says, more quietly, her voice shaking. "S-so you won't - have to see me again..." She barely recognises her own voice, as distorted as it is by the time it's struggled out of her too-tight throat.

"Because of what I did?" He's holding onto the doorframe so tightly that it looks like it might be the only thing holding him up.

"Because of what _I_ did," Hinata informs him, tears streaming down her face again. She'd thought she might have run out of tears by now, but it seems there are always more. "I was so _weak_ , so _thoughtless_ , it was _awful_ of me -"

"I was so _stupid_ , I never shoulda done anything like that -"

"I told myself it would hurt you if you knew, and I let myself believe it was better to lie - Oh, Naruto, I'm so _sorry_!"

"I'm sorry, Hinata. Really, really sorry. Don't go?" He's begging, now. "Don't leave?"

_He doesn't understand,_ she thinks. _He's so busy feeling guilty for what he's done that he doesn't understand what an awful wife I am._

She has to be honest with him, now, with all their lies burning around them, crumpling into smouldering ashes at their feet. "What I did is... worse than you could have guessed. I think - I think - that Himawari is -"

"Don't say that," he interrupts, eyes fever-bright. "She's my daughter. Don't say anything like that."

"She could be his."

"No. She's _mine_." Naruto's visibly struggling with himself. "Even if - even if he helped make her or whatever, she's mine."

Every apology offered is returned in kind, Hinata finds, as they cast their senses of guilt at each other like colliding waves. She can't seem to convince Naruto that she's so irredeemable that he ought to wash his hands of her, and it only makes it worse that all of his apologies mean she has no way to counterbalance it by staying angry at him for what he'd done.

There are more tears, from both of them.

They sleep in the same bed that night out of habit more than anything else, too exhausted by emotion to pursue any other option.

Hinata leaves in the morning -

\- to collect her children, and to apologise to Hanabi for leaving them with her overnight.

Hanabi insists she doesn't mind.

Days pass, stiff and awkward and full of sudden upsurges of guilt. By some unspoken consensus, neither she nor Naruto approach Suigetsu for any reason. She sees him across the street, once or twice.

Just once, she stops long enough to look back at him, and his expression is so sad, so incredibly lonely, so utterly guilty, that she almost breaks that unspoken rule, but she finds it in herself to keep moving.

When she looks into Himawari's eyes, she keeps seeing those purple undertones lurking beneath the blue.

Try as she might, she can't simply forget about Suigetsu.

He doesn't try to approach her, though. There is no knock on her door, no quiet voice speaking in solitary moments, no sign of him anywhere close by.

Just the occasional glimpse, at a distance.

That's all.

Had he ever truly cared about her? To sleep with her husband that way... and yet, he'd praised her, slept holding her, lavished attention on her. Perhaps at first those things might have been easy to write off as the efforts of some calculating seducer to win her over, but it's hard to truly believe that about him, not when he'd shown her his most honest face.

At least, it had seemed an honest face at the time.

The uncertainty still nags at her. Hinata knows she ought to simply dismiss his motives as irrelevant and move on, because it shouldn't matter why he'd acted like that when he'll never get the chance to do it again.

Whatever it had seemed like they might have is gone now, Hinata tells herself. She just has to push away her thoughts of him, consign her memories to the deepest, darkest parts of her mind, where they won't trouble her ever again.

It's better that way.

Even if she does wonder if it's hurting him too. Even if she does want answers, about what he'd been thinking, how he really feels. Even if she'd like to hear it if he's sorry for the pain left in his wake.

Naruto seems restless, sometimes, and she wonders if he's thinking about Suigetsu too, but she can't find any way to ask him something like that. It's hard enough to speak of normal things; they all seem so awkward now, with the weight of the past looming over everything. And yet, those at least are safe topics, ones with the comforting patina of routine to smooth over all the gaps.

Suigetsu is not a safe topic.

All the same, they can't stay like this forever, can they? As long as they ignore that wound, it can't possibly hope to heal.

They're going to have to have some very difficult conversations -

\- but not quite yet.

For now, it has to be enough to attend to their duties as shinobi, to care for their children, and to try to relearn their marriage after it's been changed so drastically by what they've both done.

Life goes on, because the alternative is unthinkable.


	15. Mending What's Broken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto and Hinata try to mend their marriage and make space for the changes in their family.

If anyone else has noticed the tension in the Uzumaki household, they certainly have no hope of discovering why it's there, because Hinata and Naruto are keeping this one to themselves. Sometimes it feels as if they're walking on eggshells, holding their breath and waiting for something to shatter underfoot.

When something finally does happen, however, it's not any of the things they might have been waiting for.

Himawari's first tooth emerges.

It's as sharp and pointed as that of a puppy.

It would be an endearing trait - it _is_ an endearing trait - if not for the part where it forces the issue they've been avoiding in the meantime.

There's no question, now, about who'd fathered Hinata's daughter.

"We should tell him," Hinata says suddenly, one evening, while Naruto is inspecting that first fang. "In spite of what he did, we should tell him."

Naruto considers this for a while, grumbling a little, before finally assenting.

Hinata's relieved, really. The memory of the way Suigetsu had looked at her has been haunting her of late, and it's worse when she thinks about the daughter Suigetsu can never acknowledge as his own. He'll watch someone else raise his child, someone else earn the love given to a father, and never know any of it for himself.

She remembers from talking with him that he no longer actually has any family. Denying him the chance to at least know for sure about Himawari feels cruel to her, and she doesn't want to be cruel, despite everything that's happened. Besides, when Himawari grows up, pretending she has never had any other father would be doing her a disservice; she won't be able to hide it, so they might as well give her the information so she can handle it on her own terms rather than those of others.

With that decided, the only thing left to do is find Suigetsu. That's a little more difficult than it had once been, because he seems to have graduated from wistful staring to outright avoiding both of them. In the end, Hinata entrusts a note to Shino, who can be relied upon to pass it along without even trying to read it.

It's an invitation to the Uzumaki home, the better to discuss their situation.

Suigetsu shows up, right on schedule, though he looks nervous enough that Hinata thinks if either of them so much as raise their voices suddenly, they'll send Suigetsu running for the nearest exit without looking back even once. The part where she and Naruto are both there appears to be a major contributing factor to his nervousness. Nevertheless, he sits down, politely refuses any offers of drinks or food made in the name of hospitality, and waits for them to speak.

"You know why you're here, right?" That's Naruto, eyeing him dubiously.

"'cuz you guys are trying to put things back together?" Suigetsu shrugs. "I guess... me not saying anything doesn't help, right? Somebody wrecks shit for you, it stings worse if you never get an apology? And you're sick of it stinging?" He glances from one of them to the other. "And... yeah, I'm sorry. I broke stuff that can't be fixed that easy."

Hinata exchanges a glance with Naruto. This isn't what they'd been planning to discuss, but since Suigetsu's brought it up, they might as well go with it.

"Why?" Hinata asks, biting her lip for a moment. "Why did you do... all that?"

"Are you sure you wanna hear that one?" Suigetsu's looking a little uncomfortable there.

"Tell us," Naruto says, his voice a little flat.

Suigetsu glances at Hinata. "...I liked you 'cos you were nice to me. I got interested 'cos you're pretty. And then I kept liking you and stuck around." His gaze switches to Naruto. "I thought if we did the same things you couldn't be mad at her if you found out and she'd be safe. And then I got to thinking about you a lot, and it wasn't just a plan, it was the fun, and the bit where I just kept wanting you." There's a wry grimace. "Look, you're both hot, and I like sex, and you're nice to people, and I like it when people are nice to me. Not great at being nice back, or this wouldn't've happened. Pretty stupid, huh? All of this happening on account of some dumbass like me?" He scratches the back of his neck, still looking like he wants to run for it. "I didn't really wanna go caring about how anybody felt. I'm not good at that anyway." Now he's looking Naruto in the eye again. "You said we'd just cause trouble in the village, when we first came. I heard you. So I didn't wanna care whether I did cause trouble or not, because I figured people'd always think I was gonna, so why get all that suspicion without getting to do anything fun to deserve it?"

Hinata's not sure what to say. She'd grown somewhat accustomed to Suigetsu's blunt speech in the past, but this is on a completely different level. Naruto, too, is silent.

Suigetsu, meanwhile, is shifting as if to get up. "Look, I'm sorry. I fucked everything up. And I didn't really wanna care about that, either, but I _do_ , I hate that you two got hurt and I wish I didn't, it was easier when that kinda thing was just funny to me." He looks away. "Won't go near you anymore. Will... that help? At all?"

"...Don't get up." Naruto's voice isn't quite as sharp now.

"That's... not actually what we brought you here for. But... thank you for apologising," Hinata says, slowly.

"Oh." Suigetsu twists his hands together, looking uncertain.

"It's about Himawari." Hinata shifts a little closer to Naruto as she speaks. "Her first tooth was... like yours are."

She sees understanding cross his face, unhappiness, resignation, and then he's clearly trying to wipe away any expression at all.

"She's gonna wonder," Naruto says. "When she's older. So you better not disappear, in case she wants to know who you are."

"And if she has your abilities, she'll need someone to teach her how to use them," Hinata adds.

Confusion crosses Suigetsu's face, and then something that could be relief if seen in the right light. "If... if she needs me, I'll be around." He scratches his cheek. "And, uh... if she has teeth like that... you're gonna want dog toys, normal teething stuff won't work so good. My brother always said that's what my mother used for me. And the squeaker in the thing told her where I was, too..."

Naruto actually laughs - but the tension in the room has been drawing so tight that it feels like practically anything could have snapped it, and Hinata finds she's joining in. They'd have laughed at just about anything right now, just to release some of that awful tension.

The laughter dies away quickly, but things feel better for its having appeared at all. It means everyone can observe the proper bits of manners involved in Suigetsu taking his leave, without any shouting or swearing or crying.

His footsteps fade, and Hinata feels a weight lift off her shoulders.

Something unknown has been answered, now, something that had been nagging at her for so long.

He'd been right, funnily enough; his absence, the lack of any apology, the lack of any ending, it had kept him on her mind, even when she'd wanted to stop. It had been as if she'd been halfway through a conversation, only for the other person to disappear suddenly, leaving her with a head full of words unsaid, things that were meant to be spoken.

That conversation is over, now, and the unspoken words have had their chance to live and die and be answered as they should have been all along.

Hinata looks over at Naruto, and he too looks more relaxed now. Slowly, she slides her hand toward his, hopeful and uncertain. He meets her halfway, interlacing their fingers.

"I really do love you," she says, quietly. "And I really am so sorry for what I did." She's apologised before, but amid the crying and self-loathing and absolute anguish, she thinks that something that ought to have been in that apology had been lost. Now, with time enough to think, time enough to see beyond the shattering of the self-deception that had allowed her to convince herself that what she'd been doing hadn't been that bad, she can offer the kind of apology given by someone who knows the pain they've caused, someone whose desire to make amends is more than the desperate flailing of one who has broken something and is trying to fit the pieces together without reaching for the glue that will keep them from falling apart again.

"...I'm sorry too. And I love you, and... I forgive you." Naruto looks as if he might have been on the verge of tears for a moment there, but he's smiling.

That smile takes Hinata's breath away. In spite of everything, Naruto can forgive her. In spite of how she'd deceived herself, and then him, he can forgive her. That's who he is; it's who he's been all along, the good person she'd begun to love even when she'd been so very young. She'd almost lost him, and it had been her own fault, but now she sees him all over again as he really is.

"I forgive you too." How can she not? They've done the unthinkable, but here they are, and she loves him, and she has the incredible good luck to be loved by him. She can't fault him for doing the same thing she'd done, especially not when he's sorry for it.

She's being pulled gently into his arms, and leans against his chest, closing her eyes and wrapping her arms around his waist. How could she have risked losing this? That thought is one of mild incredulity, now, not self-recrimination, just wondering what she could have been thinking to look for anything but this. Even in the moments where she hasn't actively been thinking of him, Naruto has been somewhere in her mind, but now here he is, once again at the core of everything.

Being in love with him had been so simple, so easy, she realises, that she hadn't even felt as though it had needed thinking about. It had always been there, like gravity, and like gravity it had affected every step without being consciously contemplated.

She'd taken that for granted, as if it were some natural law that would never cease to exist.

Marrying Naruto had not been difficult. Having a marriage with him, on the other hand, takes work, no matter how much love there is.

There are those who say you can't possibly know what you have until it's gone, but Hinata had been lucky; she'd almost lost Naruto, but only almost, and now she knows exactly what she would have lost.

Hinata sighs. She can hear Naruto's heartbeat, close to her ear, steady and comforting. His arms are warm around her, and he's a solid presence in her arms as well. It's everything she'd dreamed of, but... she wishes it hadn't taken the emotional fallout from terrible acts of faithlessness to show her that her dream can't afford to be taken for granted or pushed into the background.

Somewhere up the other end of the house, she can hear noises that tell her Boruto is awake and looking for something to do. Experience reminds her that if he's not distracted soon, he's likely to wake Himawari up as well.

Hinata has to get up. "It's Boruto," she murmurs to Naruto, who hasn't been quite as quick to recognise the sounds. Her husband's senses might stretch across half a continent when he activates the various fearsome abilities at his disposal, but without them, he's never the first one to detect a ruckus-in-the-making from the children.

He listens, nods, and sighs, letting go of her. "I'll go keep him occupied while you get whatever he'll be wanting?" he offers.

"Probably a snack, he's always hungry when he wakes up after a nap." Hinata rises, heading for the kitchen, while Naruto heads in Boruto's direction. She hears the noises stop, not long after that, and by the time she has a little snack ready and is bringing it over, Boruto is only mildly pouty, rather than absolutely furiously indignant about the state of a world in which he can be caged by his crib and denied immediate access to food as soon as the concept crosses his mind.

She feeds him, and joins in on playing with him, and then it's Himawari's turn to be fed and looked after, woken by the sounds of her older brother. Caring for the two of them takes hours, and by the time they're settled again, it's time to make dinner.

Unusually, Naruto volunteers to help out. He does know how to feed himself, of course, but he still has very little grasp on the things that are required to cook a balanced meal, so Hinata has to be in charge here. Once she shows him how, though, it becomes a lot easier.

They're passing ingredients back and forth between them, asking and confirming which steps have been done, and which still remain to do. It's the most neutral topic anyone could possibly have devised, and between that and the cooperation involved, they're relaxing further with each other.

It seems silly, perhaps, to mend a rift with a bridge of leeks and carrots, but if that's what it takes, Hinata's just glad it's working.

When everything is finally ready, and the food is on the table, they can sit together and eat. Hinata realises Naruto keeps sneaking glances at her, but when she catches him at it, he only smiles that warm smile she adores, the one she's missed. She smiles back, without having to stop and think about it, and reaches out to touch his hand lightly, fleetingly. It's such a simple little touch, but with it she offers up the affection, the apologies, the renewed sense of trust that's begun to grow in her heart, and by the way his smile brightens, she knows that Naruto's understood exactly what she means.

They still have a son and a daughter to take care of, to bathe and change and put to bed for the night, but they're working together, and it's much easier now.

When it's finally time to go to bed, Hinata's tired, but she no longer feels sick at heart, because it feels as if they're mended more cracks in one afternoon and evening than they had in a week before that.

They don't make love, that night, but Hinata sleeps wrapped up in Naruto's arms and knows she's in the only place she wants to be right now.

Her husband has extended his forgiveness to so many from all walks of life. Hinata knows how fortunate she is that it has extended to her as well. And he... is still the man she'd fallen for, the one she loves, and she knows he deserves the forgiveness she's given him in return.

The next morning, Naruto is still there while Hinata feeds Himawari.

"People can be really mean," he says, looking at Himawari thoughtfully. "D'you think it'd help if she covered her mouth like Kakashi-sensei does?"

"She's too young to do that, and she'll have more teeth like this before she's old enough," Hinata points out.

"Yeah..." Naruto frowns, scratching at his head. "...If people ask, we tell 'em we really wanted another kid but it wasn't happening?"

"You mean, pretend we arranged this?" Hinata's wiping Himawari's mouth while the baby drools merrily, keeping the potential mess at bay.

Naruto nods. "I don't wanna lie about stuff, but nobody really needs to know anything they might use to hurt her. We can tell her the truth once she's older, maybe?"

Hinata nods slowly. "People can say terrible things," she agrees, "and it's not fair to make her deal with that while she's very young."

"Besides, we did want another kid, and it hadn't happened yet, so..." Naruto shrugs.

"Thank you," she says, quietly. He's covering for her, willingly concealing what she'd done, for Himawari's sake. That's why she can accept it, though; she might have felt unable to accept if it were only for herself, but Himawari is innocent of any wrongdoing, and they have to protect her.

"I gotta go, though, Kakashi-sensei said I'll have another mission..." Naruto looks apologetic, for some reason.

Hinata packs a lunch for him and hands it over, and when he kisses her goodbye it feels almost as if nothing had ever been wrong at all.

And then he's gone, and Hinata has the children to mind, a house to clean, and far too many chances to be alone with her thoughts.

She's going to keep herself busy though, she vows inwardly, and she's going to keep at the forefront of her mind that she can hardly wait for Naruto to come home again.

There are always things to do, if she looks hard enough.

She even manages to get in some sparring against Hanabi, on a day where they're both free, and feels as if it's done her a lot of good. They drink fruit juice afterwards and talk about nothing in particular.

Hanabi had been so very serious as a child, but she'd learned to have fun later, and Hinata is so very glad that even the incident with Toneri hadn't destroyed her sister's newfound sense of fun. Hanabi can joke with her now, and tease her, and talk about fashion and things she finds cute. She also appears to carry an itemised list in her head of all the boys her age in the village, and their different flaws and virtues, and hearing Hanabi describe one boy according to his horrible fashion sense, ninjutsu skills and dreamy green eyes, and another with his cute smile but woeful lack of taijutsu competence, Hinata actually feels a little sorry for the boys, in an amused sort of way.

Her little sister is the type to decide on what she wants and go for it, no matter how frivolous an exterior she may feel comfortable presenting these days. She's not the kind to hesitate or second-guess herself. She's going to do well.

But then, Hinata's always known she would.

That day is a good one, and Hinata sleeps soundly that night.

When she wakes, she has more reasons to be happy all over again.

Naruto's come home.

He looks exhausted, and so she makes him something quick to eat and leaves him to sleep himself out, but just knowing he's back is enough to put a smile on her face that isn't going away anytime soon. Her good mood is contagious, though, because Boruto and Himawari are both much gigglier than usual, and the sounds of their laughter only make Hinata feel even happier with the state of the world as it exists right now.

It takes hours for Naruto to wake, and the first thing he does is shower. Hinata's been listening for him the whole time, so by the time he's out of the shower she has more food ready for him, and she's setting it on the table just as he steps into the dining room.

"Thanks," he says, covering a yawn as he sits down, staring blankly at his plate as if he's never seen one before and has no idea what to do with it. Some basic knowledge apparently reasserts itself moments later, though, because he digs in with gusto.

"You still look so tired... are you going to sleep again after this?"

"What, me? Nah, I'll be fine in a minute, y'know, just gotta wake up a bit more." There's another yawn, but Naruto keeps eating.

By the time he's done, his head is drooping, and he doesn't resist when Hinata guides him back to bed. He just curls up and goes right back to sleep, and she returns to looking after the children until night falls.

Crawling into bed beside him, Hinata props herself up with one arm, and looks into Naruto's sleeping face. A bit of moonlight's coming in through their bedroom window, and it falls directly onto his face, and it illuminates him, but it also makes him look so pale and cold that Hinata has to reach out and touch his cheek to persuade herself that he's still alive.

Naruto stirs, and smiles sleepily up at her, blinking a little. "Mm?"

That stillness that had created such unfortunate images in Hinata's mind has entirely dissolved now, and she smiles back at him. "It's nothing," she whispers. "Sorry to wake you."

"Mm, 'sokay," he mumbles, drawing her into his arms and burying his face in her hair. "'m awake now."

Hinata cuddles in against him with a soft little sigh, one hand resting lightly on his chest, and smiles again, closing her eyes.

They stay like that for a few more quiet moments, incalculably precious, and then Hinata feels one of Naruto's hands sliding down her back to cup her bottom, and her eyes open again. She can feel that hand there, squeezing lightly, massaging a backside that she knows is just a little bit rounder than it had once been, for all she stays in shape.

With a little wiggle, she pushes into that touch, and Naruto shifts to look her in the face.

"Is this, uh...?" He looks a little uncertain, more than a bit tentative.

"Yes," she says simply, and pulls him into a kiss.

They undress each other piece by piece, caress by caress, between kisses filled with the need to relearn each other, and Hinata feels as if she's being created anew, leaving doubt and regret behind. The way Naruto touches her is so very gentle, so slow and careful, and her hands on him are equally careful, just as tender.

When she finally pulls Naruto on top of her, when she feels him enter her at last, Hinata could almost cry with happiness, and she sees that same feeling reflected crystal-clear upon her husband's face. It's perfect, all of it, everything but this forgotten for now, all the world and all the past shut out of a space that only has room for their love.

Naruto still moves at that achingly slow pace, touching her face with his hand, kissing her, whispering affectionate little things to her, drawing everything out until Hinata's climax rolls over her, stunning in its intensity. She arches into his thrusts, arms tight around him, crying out, and hears Naruto's moans as he joins her only moments later.

Panting, smiling giddily, they trade a few more kisses, before curling up together to spend their night in contented rest.


	16. A Quiet Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suigetsu reflects upon the consequences of what he's done.

If there is only one comfort left in Suigetsu's life, it's this: that Karin doesn't know exactly what had happened, only that it had seen him nearly driven from the village for some reason, and her guesses about the cause are all wildly off the mark. If she'd known the precise details, she never would have let them rest, but since she doesn't know, and since Suigetsu barely reacts to any of her comments, she makes a show of finding better things to do with her time than mock him about unknown events.

It's just as well, really, because Karin has a gift for rubbing salt into a wound.

As it is, though, the matter is a secret, more or less, and Suigetsu is left to contemplate his part in it alone.

Things like a conscience are so inconvenient. They'd tried to train those out of the students in Kirigakure's Academy, and Suigetsu had been very good at shutting out any qualms that might have got between him and anything he might want.

He'd cared about people, sometimes.

There had been his brother... until he'd died.

There had been friends... but not one of them had ever come to save him in his time of greatest need. There had been no rescue party to bring him home, no crowd of people to say "are you all right" and "we were so worried" and "welcome back."

And in Otogakure, mercy had been a fool's dream.

Suigetsu would have cut through a thousand men without hesitation if it would have taken him out of that place. He could never have held onto friendship or love there, not when each day might have been his last, not when anyone he might have cared for might die in agony, or in slow creeping misery, with him trapped far from them and unable to do anything to help.

He'd learned not to care.

And then Sasuke'd come along, so inconveniently compelling a team leader, and everything had been a succession of disasters after that, but it had been a succession of disasters in which Suigetsu had come to feel something for his teammates - even Karin, for all her many faults.

When he thinks about it now, Taka must have been the first crack in the armour, the first vulnerable point that had left him open to everything else.

And now here he is, having caused an astonishing amount of trouble, and genuinely wishing he hadn't. It's a very uncomfortable feeling, and he wishes it would go away.

Feeling something for Hinata had been worryingly easy; she's sweet, and kind, and so good a person that his leading her into this mess has to count as one of the worst things he's ever done, but it had been so good at the time, he'd enjoyed all their stolen moments and had wanted even more. Feeling anything for Naruto except irritation or possibly lust had been much more unexpected. The guy's impossible, after all, and he'd plagued Sasuke unmercifully with his 'come back to the village' antics, and Suigetsu had begun his time here disliking Naruto immensely. But... Naruto is fun. _Was_ fun.

He _is_ fun, but not in a way that Suigetsu will get to experience ever again. And that fun had been a horrible trap, a warning sign Suigetsu should really have paid attention to, but _no_ , he'd gone and started looking forward to being around Naruto, and that had all gotten entirely out of hand, and now...

Well. He doesn't love either of them. He's pretty sure of that. They love each other, and what's happened to Suigetsu is nothing like that.

It's nothing like what Sasuke and Jūgo have, either, and that's so bitterly ironic, given Suigetsu's preference for considering himself the rational one out of the team.

How have things reached the point where Sasuke's in a happy stable relationship with someone he loves very much, someone who loves him, and Suigetsu's sitting around with a bundle of annoying and complicated feelings about a married couple whose lives he's seriously fucked up, who he ought to be staying well away from? It's ridiculous. It's unfair.

It's... more of his bad luck, probably.

_Maybe it's just my turn to be making the bad choices,_ he muses. _Jūgo had his turn when he went to Orochimaru on purpose, Karin's probably been one continuous bad choice for as long as she can remember, and Sasuke'd had all the Hebi and Taka days to get that shit out of his system. Maybe I was just overdue for my turn. Maybe it's contagious._

He's turned his life into a disaster zone, and now he's just sitting in it, wondering what to do next. Not alone, though, oh no, he's got all these stupid feelings for company.

Why'd they have to be so nice to him, anyway? That's just not fair either. He'd thought they were going to tell him to stay far away forever, but instead they'd gone and brought up Himawari, how she might need him later.

He doesn't want to think about Himawari.

He doesn't want to think about the bit where the only kid he's ever likely to have is an Uzumaki now, not a Hōzuki, how she'll never have his name, how Naruto's who she'll call her father.

Not that he actually wants to raise kids or anything, of course, he's pretty firm on the idea that he'd be absolutely terrible at that. But any kids he might theoretically have raised were supposed to be Hōzuki, living with him in a village that isn't even his home anymore.

_I come from the line of a Mizukage, and I'm the last of his descendants to carry our clan name,_ he thinks, prodding at that thought like someone poking a loose tooth with their tongue. _There won't be any more._ It stings a bit, contemplating that, realising the village of his birth will never whisper excitedly about the bright future of some Hōzuki child, practically destined to wield a mighty blade.

For his brother, that bright future had been taking shape, only to be cut short.

Suigetsu hadn't even got that far. He'd dreamed, and hoped, and worked for it, and the only thing that's left of those dreams is probably the rust on the forehead protector that had fallen free to lie unheeded beside his sword as he'd been taken away from his home.

_Don't be silly,_ he tells himself, grinning mirthlessly. _That shit woulda gone into an evidence locker somewhere._

It's not exactly a comfort, but gallows humour is just about the only kind he has left sometimes.

That one battle and everything that'd come after it are why he'll never walk beside some son or daughter through Kiri streets, taking them to buy a sword of their own.

In comparison, Himawari's practically a mockery of the future he might have had, and it's entirely Suigetsu's own fault, he knows that.

He'd thought he was being careful, but he clearly hadn't been careful enough. And now there's a baby who's probably going to go through all kinds of shit, and Suigetsu can't do anything to stop that from happening.

He doesn't really want to care about that part either, but he can't seem to stop it.

Suigetsu groans quietly, thumping his head against his bedroom wall lightly.

_I'm a fucking idiot._

And he can't even imagine himself trying to move on and find somebody else, which makes everything even worse. How's he supposed to replace either of those two? How unfair would it be to get with somebody else while bringing this much baggage along for the ride? He knows he's an asshole, but he doesn't want to be _that_ kind of asshole, not after everything he's already done.

Maybe he should have just done what Shikamaru had said after all? It'd probably have been easier that way, to just disappear and not have to worry anymore about what might happen next in a place like this. It's much too late for anything like that, though, unfortunately. No, the right time to have simply walked away would have been before getting involved with Hinata.

Now he's so deeply entangled in this mess that he doesn't think there's likely to be any way out at all, and he has no idea how to handle it. Now he has two annoyingly unforgettable people to avoid as much as he possibly can, for his sake and theirs, and... a daughter. A daughter who'll never be entirely his own daughter, one whose connection to him is so strange and shameful that the details will doubtless have to be concealed from everyone.

What he's done to Himawari is enough that he ought to be ashamed on that count alone, even if one didn't count her parents, he knows.

Suigetsu sighs, and flops backward onto his bed, landing heavily.

Naruto and Hinata are right, and that only makes it worse. If Himawari turns out to have the sort of abilities Suigetsu has, she'll need someone to teach her how to use them, or all she'll ever have are the weaknesses, and an unusual nature that makes her more vulnerable at the same time as making her more interesting to certain kinds of evil bastard who want to take and use the powers of others. And if he teaches her... it won't be a Hōzuki he's teaching, not quite, and all of the long-held secrets of a Kirigakure clan will go to a Konoha-born child.

He _will_ teach her, though, if it becomes necessary. There's really no other choice, not if he wants her to be safe, and he _does_ want her to be safe, inconvenient as that impulse is.

Suigetsu closes his eyes and tries to imagine what Himawari will look like as she grows up. With her eyes stay that pale blue, with only hints of purple, or will they darken to something resembling his own shade? His eyes had been purple from birth, like his brother's, like their mother's, but there's really no way to be sure what Himawari's will do. And her teeth - will they all be so sharp, or something more like the photographs of Suigetsu's parents, only mildly pointed in comparison to his? She has Hinata's hair, at least, so that much is fairly easy to picture.

Maybe she'll have the Byakugan? If so, it might be a very good thing for her also to have Suigetsu's own gifts; people can get disgustingly greedy about dōjutsu, and a child with special eyes will be a thousand times safer if she can just turn into water if anybody tries to take them from her.

She could have friends, and grow up to be very successful at... something, who knows what? She could be happy.

He hopes she'll be happy.

 

* * *

 

Everything is so quiet, now. In Sasuke's experience, this usually means the universe is taking a nice deep breath and getting a run-up before something really dramatic happens, so he's feeling wary. The best-case scenario is that it really is this peaceful right now, that a lull in the action doesn't presage a disaster later, but best-case scenarios don't seem to come along all that often.

He's been keeping an eye on everything, and thus far, he's seen no signs that Shikamaru's gone and decided to try anything foolish again. There are no Anbu creeping around at suspicious times, blithely ignorant of the part where a household whose residents have unusual sensory abilities can tell exactly where they are at all times, and that absence either means they really are leaving Sasuke's house alone, or the village has decided to waste someone good enough to hide their presence from Sasuke, Karin, and all of Jūgo's animal friends on this kind of surveillance duty. It's probably the former, though, because anyone that good, if they even exist, would have to be out tracking down genuine threats to the village.

Suigetsu seems far more subdued now, which is unusual for him, but Sasuke supposes that the consequences of his actions have been weighty enough for even Suigetsu to be made serious in their aftermath. Sasuke's not exactly the best at cheering people up, so he's not sure there's anything he can really do about it, but he's here if Suigetsu needs him, and that might have to be enough.

Hopefully, Suigetsu will recover from this and go on with a life that doesn't involve sleeping with unsuitable people. That would be nice. That would significantly cut down on the amount of potential drama lurking in everybody's future.

Sasuke doesn't want to be involved in any more issues, not after everything else that's happened; he's tired of dramatic things happening. They're exhausting and they usually involve more emotional unpleasantness than Sasuke wants to encounter these days, what with much of his life having fallen under one category of emotional unpleasantness or another. That's over, now, and he wants it to stay that way.

A simple life, a peaceful life, those are the things Sasuke wants now, even though he's realist enough to know that in a world scarred by so much pain and death, new threats are bound to arise, and as one of the strongest shinobi alive - neither pride nor false modesty are involved in his self-assessment, only an acknowledgement of the facts - he is likely to be called upon to deal with those threats.

Well, if he must, he must, but he hopes that very few of them will require him to take lives anymore.

His musings on his own return to a preference for avoiding killing unless necessary are interrupted by the sound of his bedroom door opening.

It's Jūgo, who smiles and comes to sit with him on the bed.

"Are you hungry? We could make dinner soon," Jūgo suggests.

"Mm... not just yet." As Jūgo's arm wraps around him and draws him in closer, Sasuke relaxes, leaning against Jūgo's chest. A pleased little murmur escapes him as Jūgo's big hands begin to rub his back, and Sasuke feels a great deal of his stress beginning to slip away.

Dinner can wait a little longer, he thinks, with something like this to enjoy in the meantime.

By the time Jūgo's done, Sasuke feels oddly boneless, as though he might melt into a puddle as thoroughly as Suigetsu can. He stays there, leaning on Jūgo, not wanting to move at all, until the first twinges of hunger remind him that they really have to make dinner now. He smiles into Jūgo's kiss, and gets up, stretching a little.

"What do you want for dinner?"

"I have everything ready for beef stew, if you want," Jūgo suggests, and Sasuke nods.

It's not as if he minds the dish in any case, and since Jūgo enjoys beef and stew is one of the better things to offer to Suigetsu given his difficulties with chewing solid foods, and Karin doesn't prefer it but will eat it readily enough if it's what's on offer, it's something none of them will have a problem with, which makes it a good choice.

They head into the kitchen and get to work. Sasuke can do just about anything by now with only one arm, but the cooking does go more quickly when he has help, and none of his Taka teammates - housemates, these days, since the team exists mostly in memory - would ever dream of pitying him for it or acting as if he's incapable. They just help out to make things go more smoothly, without making a fuss.

Dinner is a quiet thing, tonight; the stew takes a while to cook, but once it's done, the others say little more than their thanks for the meal. The mood isn't all that lively, but Sasuke doesn't tend to make these things any livelier, so he just accepts the prevailing aura of silence and eats his meal. It's Suigetsu's turn to wash up afterwards, which he does without any real complaint, and then they're all retreating back to their respective bedrooms to spend the rest of the evening doing whatever they want to until it's time to sleep.

Sometimes the household is louder and more chaotic than this. Not right now, it seems, but Sasuke figures it'll go back to mayhem soon enough.

He might as well soak in the quiet while it lasts.

 

* * *

 

Suigetsu has only ever missed one day of work for Tenten, the day he'd been pushed into leaving the village, until Sasuke had found him and brought him home. She'd accepted his apology for that, and there have been no further absences like that one.

Even when Suigetsu doesn't know what else to do with his life, he can still work. He can get on with things there, do his job competently, and collect his pay knowing he's met all the requirements to earn it.

Just now, that's the only thing he feels as if he's actually doing well.

Even that, admittedly, is subject to some tense moments, like when Shikamaru's wife Temari comes in to discuss an improved war fan she's interested in trying out. He spends a few moments looking at her, wonder if she knows, if Shikamaru had made the whole business  topic for dinner table conversation at home, but since she's not trying anything particularly violent, he suspects that Temari has no idea at all.

And he has something to contribute, here, stepping in to mention a special coating that might serve well if Temari wants to waterproof her new fan. Coming from Suna, she'd developed her style in an environment with very little water, but Konoha's not quite as dry, and neither are most other places she might feel inclined to take the weapon.

"And this won't impede its movements?" Temari asks, eyeing the bottle Suigetsu's offering her.

"Nah, your fan oughta open and close just as fast as ever, only thing that'll change is how much maintenance it needs. We used stuff like this in Kiri all the time, on all sorts of weapons." Suigetsu grins at her. "You could take a bit to try out on a miniature fan before coating the big one?" he suggests, and Temari agrees.

She comes back the next day and buys four bottles, and Tenten is delighted. Stocking Suigetsu's choice of products has been a gamble, but it's paying off.

Tenten also suggests that Suigetsu ought to be the one to make all sales to Temari in future, since he's persuaded her into that one so well, and Suigetsu's glad to realise he can still provide a worthwhile contribution here.

He's also contemplating the part where Temari's reputedly one of the best users of Wind techniques that anyone might find in the village, and wondering if she'd ever like to show off a few moves. He has a few jutsu with that chakra nature himself, the second he'd developed as his skills had matured, and observing the best is always a good way to get better.

Not that he can use any of his techniques in battle anymore, not being a shinobi in this village, but he'd rather not let any of his skills lapse in any case, and since she's also a former outsider, and spends a fair amount of her time raising her son, Shikadai, Suigetsu figures Temari might welcome the practice as well.

It's kind of nice, actually, to be trying to connect with someone, and to have no ulterior motives or underlying goals at all.

Maybe he can get better at whatever it is he seems to be lacking, this way? That can't be an ulterior motive, can it? Trying to get to know someone because you want to improve your combat skills is normal. Trying to get to know someone because you want to get along with them is... probably normal? Working out how to be better around people is possibly _not_ normal, since everybody else seems to have picked that one up during the sorts of childhoods and teen years Suigetsu had missed out on, but, normal or not, it's probably the best thing he can be doing right now.

Suigetsu has a life to be getting on with, so he might as well be trying to live it.


	17. New Lives

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sasuke's household welcomes some new little faces.

It had been news to Suigetsu that he is now the benevolent friend who'd assisted a couple in their fervent wish to have another child, but he'd quickly seen the reasoning behind it. It's so much less of an issue for everybody that way, and especially for Himawari, who deserves better than to face a life filled with the stigma of her conception. Maybe it's a little odd that the Uzumaki household would have gone to such lengths so quickly, but 'a little odd' is forgivable. It can be excused.

And it's very necessary, because by the time Himawari is a year old, she's showing every sign of continuing to present the world with a sunny smile full of very, _very_ sharp little teeth. The first one had not been an anomaly, apparently; she might just be getting the full set.

Suigetsu hasn't seen that much of her, but he does know about this, because since the discovery, he's been permitted three visits over the course of the year, including the one on her birthday, because Naruto and Hinata seem to feel that in spite of their awkward history, Himawari ought to get to see him on her birthday.

There is, apparently, a very small party, but Suigetsu doesn't go to that. He drops by afterwards, discreetly, to whisper a happy birthday to Himawari and to hand over a new teething toy, especially suited to a child trying to develop a mouth full of fangs.

He even gets to hold her, this time.

This might have been a mistake, because the feel of her in his arms makes his heart twist in all sorts of peculiar ways. Just looking at her had produced a complicated mix of emotions, but he'd been able to push those aside and get on with things after the other two visits, for the most part. On this visit, however, he's holding her, and she yawns and smiles sleepily and reaches up to try to put her arms around his neck in a perfectly trusting way, and now he has no idea what he's feeling. It's a little like pain, and he feels almost as though he wants to cry, but also as though there is nothing he wants in all the world more than to see Himawari smile at him again.

Suigetsu _knows_ , suddenly, without any shadow of a doubt, that he'd do practically anything to protect Himawari. She's precious and vulnerable and depends utterly upon others to take care of her, and he has learned to want nothing to do with the weak and helpless, but it's different with her. He wants to be one of the people she depends upon to look after her, but...

It's just not possible. He remembers that suddenly, the knowledge hitting him like a shock of ice in his system.

How can he have allowed himself to forget that? Hasn't he been trying not to want anything he has no right to get, these days?

The role he might play in Himawari's life has already been explained to him, and he'd agreed with it upon hearing it, and it isn't that. A mentor in abilities, a source of explanations about a missing branch in the family tree, an origin, he can be those things, but Himawari has two parents, and he isn't one of them. Everything he might be to Himawari will come when she's older, in any case; a visit like this, when she won't even remember him and isn't old enough to care, is already more of a courtesy than he ought to expect.

It's an act of kindness with effects that are actually terribly cruel, because now he's just torturing himself with thoughts of a life he can't have.

He has a daughter who can't ever truly be his daughter, and he loves her, and it hurts.

(And it _is_ love, he's realising that now, much as he wishes he weren't.)

There's a faint sound, of a fabric on fabric, and a breath, and Suigetsu realises that Naruto has been watching him the whole time. A dull tide of humiliation rises in him at the thought of Naruto having seen how he must have looked at Himawari, and at the part where he'd somehow forgotten about being supervised. Of course he's being watched, that's only natural, but he'd been so wrapped up in thoughts of Himawari that he'd somehow allowed himself to forget that completely.

Not meeting Naruto's gaze, he holds Himawari out to him. "Probably oughta go," Suigetsu mutters. "Thanks for this."

"Hey." Naruto's voice isn't much louder than Suigetsu's own. "Come back next week? Gotta find out how she likes the toy, y'know, since you gave it to her?"

It's another act of kindness that Suigetsu knows he doesn't really deserve, knows will hurt him, but can't bring himself to refuse. "...Okay."

On the way home, he hears women's voices, and listens to be sure of who it is. Ino, all right, Temari, okay, but that's Karui's voice mixed in with that, and Karui still doesn't really like any of the members of Taka. With that in mind, Suigetsu takes a side street, planning out a different route home. He doesn't really need that kind of awkward encounter right now, not when he's already feeling a little off.

There are a couple of tipsy chūnin staggering down the next street he chooses, using each other for support, and slurring the words to some song Suigetsu's never heard before, but they don't even notice him. He watches them go, thinking about the punishments they'd have faced in the Kirigakure he'd known as a child if they'd been caught out in public in such an intoxicated state.

Konoha is soft in so many ways, and yet it's produced a number of truly fearsome shinobi. They talk about kindness here, and camaraderie, and they expect others to play along, but Suigetsu knows something of Konoha's past. He knows what this village had chosen to do to its Uchiha citizens, and it's no less terrible than anything Kirigakure might have done - but Kirigakure would probably not have bothered to pretend the deaths were the actions of a lone shinobi. It seems like such hypocrisy, to Suigetsu, that Konoha can criticise other villages with something like that in its past.

Especially when it brings so many of its problems down upon itself. Most of the greatest threats to the world, barring certain demented rabbit-goddess creatures, have come from Konoha shinobi, or something Konoha shinobi have done.

This is, supposedly, Suigetsu's village now, but he refuses to be blind to its faults. After fighting beside Sasuke, after hearing about Sasuke's past, he can't do something like that, and won't even try.

Still, what's he supposed to do about it? It isn't as though he's the kind of person who's suited to making anything better, and people wouldn't listen to him even if he were to try.

He's a bit messed up, and living in a village that's also a bit messed up.

_I oughta be feeling right at home._

 

* * *

 

After this long, Jūgo knows exactly what Sasuke likes best, and it's the kind of knowledge he loves to have. He loves knowing that Sasuke can be in the mood to lie beside him, trading long, slow kisses that make Jūgo's heart surge with joy, and he loves knowing where to massage to rid Sasuke of tension, turning him into a sleepy pile of contented relaxation.

He also really, definitely loves knowing that when they're like this, with Sasuke beneath him, every little movement of his hips can get a sound from Sasuke that's more wonderful than the last. And if he keeps things at a nice steady pace, if his thrusts are just firm enough, at just the right angle, knowing Sasuke will writhe and moan and look up at him with that expression of desperate pleasure is one of the most incredible delights of his life. He's had enough practice, now, to know what will make Sasuke completely fall to pieces, and making him feel good is the kind of thing Jūgo would rather be doing over practically anything else in the world.

And when it's over, when he's been able to give the most wonderful person in his life what might be his first orgasm of the night but is sometimes the second or even the third, when he's got there himself and they're just lying together and holding each other, they can talk, sleepily, about all manner of things.

Sasuke always _listens_ to him. He really cares what Jūgo thinks, and that kind of respect is so incredibly special. He doesn't know what other people's relationships are like, and he hopes the majority of them are happy, but Jūgo's pretty sure not many of them could possibly be quite this happy.

It's so safe, here, with Sasuke, who'd promised to be his cage but had become a light in his heart along the way. Sometimes Jūgo feels like he might actually be glowing because of what he feels, and he's amazed that nobody else seems to see it.

"I helped a cat today who was having kittens," Jūgo says, covering a yawn and pressing a few extra kisses to Sasuke's brow and cheeks. "She was black, but most of the kittens were tabbies. The owner says she'll be giving away the kittens once they're old enough."

Sasuke opens one eye. "Did you want one of them?"

"Well, yes, a little? I could ask it not to eat the birds, it'll listen if I ask nicely."

A hint of a smile curves Sasuke's lips, making Jūgo want to kiss him again, but he waits to hear what Sasuke's saying. "Then we'll have a cat."

And it really is that simple, apparently; Jūgo hadn't wanted to make a big deal out of asking, in case it had turned out to be too inconvenient, but now that he has Sasuke to keep the fury at bay, now that he can handle soft and vulnerable things without fearing for their safety, he has been wanting a chance to keep one and look after it. He can do something like that now, and Sasuke seems to have just realised, without being told, what this means to Jūgo.

This is yet another piece of the kind of life Jūgo hadn't ever thought he could have, a life that Sasuke has given him, and every single piece of it is something Jūgo treasures more than he can possibly say. If there were no other reason to love Sasuke - and there are thousands, with new ones being discovered every day - Jūgo thinks he could love him for that alone.

It's a feeling that Jūgo sometimes thinks will overflow entirely, with the way he can feel it filling him up whenever Sasuke's there, and even when he's not and Jūgo's just thinking of him. He feels a little sorry for others, sometimes, who don't get to share anything this special.

Sasuke seems to be falling asleep here, using Jūgo's chest for a pillow, lulled into a doze by the way Jūgo's been stroking his hair. He looks softer somehow when he's sleeping, as if the weight of everything he's been through slips away temporarily, and Jūgo smiles at him, leans in a little closer, and whispers an "I love you" into hair still tousled into a mess by all the sex earlier.

"You too," Sasuke mumbles, voice blurred with sleepiness, but apparently still awake enough to have heard him.

He does drift off, after a while, and Jūgo falls asleep not long afterwards, having waited and watched, just thinking about how much he adores Sasuke, for all the time in between.

 

* * *

 

There are two black kittens in the litter, both girls. It's taken a couple of months for them to be ready to leave their mother, but here they are, inky wriggling blobs in a sea of tabby patterns. Sasuke stares down at them, with Jūgo standing beside him, and crouches to get a better look.

One of them appears to sense his gaze upon her; she looks up, turns around, and stares at him, her eyes amber and enormous. She blinks slowly, opens her mouth, and shrieks at him, something that can hardly even be called a meow, since it's incredibly high-pitched and so drawn-out that calling it a scream seems more applicable.

Still screaming at the top of her tiny lungs, she extricates herself from the pile of siblings, and starts making her way toward him on clumsy little legs. The second black kitten, not to be left behind, chases after her, trying earnestly to catch and eat her tail.

Sasuke stares at the kittens a little longer. He looks at Jūgo. He looks back at the kittens. The noisy one is trying to climb his dangling sleeve. He looks at Jūgo again. A hint of pain informs him that the second one is attempting to savage and consume his big toe, even if she isn't very good at it.

He looks at the cat's owner.

"We'll take these two," is all he says.

He carries both the kittens home. Jūgo carries all the equipment they're going to need to look after them.

Karin seems a little bewildered by the arrival of two kittens, when one had been the plan, but Suigetsu is apparently enraptured. He spends the next half an hour playing with them, and has to be reminded that it's his turn to make dinner.

Since it's Suigetsu making it, tonight's meal involves fish, and Sasuke catches him sneaking tiny scraps to the kittens, but doesn't say anything. It's nice to see him taking an interest in something again, after how withdrawn he's been for this past few months, and looking after kittens is a pretty harmless pastime.

All in all, the kittens restore something to the household that had felt like it might somehow have been missing. There's a certain amount of chaos involved in taking care of two very small cats, but it's not the same headache-inducing kind that comes from dealing with human drama, so Sasuke can handle it. Given his abilities, it's not even as though Sasuke has to catch the kittens in order to keep them out of trouble - he can just switch them with some other object if it seems like getting to them in time will be too difficult.

Admittedly, he wouldn't have thought that kittens could outspeed shinobi reflexes, but they're talented and unpredictable little creatures, and getting hold of them in a normal manner is sometimes a little more difficult than Sasuke could have predicted. Still, when they're in a mood to be friendly, they make good company. Sasuke's dozed off, more than once, and awakened to find he has at least one kitten sleeping on or near him, purring.

It's Suigetsu who names the first of the kittens, Shikko, the noisy one whose usual method of communication is a shriek, and whose purr sounds like a barrel of rocks rolling down a mountain. Sasuke isn't sure how something this small can make so much noise, but Shikko has apparently worked out how to defy natural laws in that department. Her sister, the one Jūgo names Bikou, is mercifully quieter, but her preferred method of defying the basic laws of nature and physics appears to involve consuming more food than her tiny body could logically hold. They have to be fed separately, or Bikou will finish hers and go look for Shikko's, at which point Shikko will start screaming at everyone again.

Shikko regards all dangling objects as cat toys, so a number of things in the household are hastily rearranged. Bikou prefers to follow people around, making tiny little chirping noises, and probably waiting for them to either deliberately feed her, or accidentally drop something edible that she can run off with and devour.

They're both little terrors, in their own ways, but Sasuke finds himself quite fond of them. They're affectionate, and he likes seeing the look on Jūgo's face while he's cuddling one; a soft and wondering expression, as though the entire experience is something of a miracle. He also likes the way the pair of kittens have coaxed Suigetsu into engaging with the household again - Suigetsu's quick to volunteer for kitten-related chores, and, if they're the subject, can easily be prompted to talk at great length, the way he'd done in the past.

Karin takes a little longer to warm up to them, but once or twice Sasuke catches her cuddling one and addressing it in what would probably be baby-talk if Sasuke were inclined to stop and listen. He's not the baby-talk type himself, of course, but he does like holding the kittens, feeding them, and having a purring bundle of black fur curled up on his lap in the evening.

It's probably just as well that he wears predominantly black clothes, though, since it means the shed hairs don't show up against the fabric.

The kittens are growing, and thriving, and winning hearts along the way, and Sasuke's glad Jūgo had suggested getting them.

 

* * *

 

Sometimes it's nice to have something uncomplicated to look after, Suigetsu thinks, trailing a bit of string along the floor for Shikko to chase. He can help to look after the kittens, and it's simple, there are no odd emotional issues involved, because these are the kittens that belong to Sasuke's household, which Suigetsu's part of, and taking care of them is a natural extension of existing chores.

They're tiny and vulnerable, but that's all right, because they're only kittens. They're allowed to be weak. And Suigetsu is allowed to care for them.

He can feed them and groom them and clean up after them, and try to teach them what they should and shouldn't be doing - not that they listen much, but he's making an attempt, at least - and it's all just something it's all right for him to be doing. He can even love them, because they're effectively his pets too, and it's all right for him to love his pets.

Suigetsu's noticed that they've given him an extra topic of safe conversation, too; if he's going to make small talk with people, discussing the cats is a pretty safe option. He's made more than one person smile by describing the time Bikou had got her head stuck inside a food can, and had trotted around the house, bumping into things, until he'd spotted her and taken it off, and the time Shikko had tried so hard to kill the broom that they'd had to shut her in the bathroom to finish sweeping the house, and how she'd shrieked at them the whole time until they'd finally let her out.

If others have pets, they generally take that as their cue to tell him about them, and Suigetsu doesn't mind listening to pet stories. If they don't, they tend to describe pets they'd once had, or ones they want to get in future. It's as if he's been handed a whole new way to relate to people, especially civilians, whose lives he still doesn't totally understand, even now that he might technically be considered one himself. He'd been raised as a shinobi, had spent most of his life up until recently either training to be one or as one, albeit as one either in captivity or outside of an actual village for a chunk of it, and it means that he and those who have spent their entire lives as civilians don't always have much common ground to talk about.

But with the cats, he has something at last, which is a nice feeling, really.

And most of all the cats give him something to focus on that doesn't hurt, even a little. Selling weapons to shinobi is mostly a good thing, but it sometimes reminds him of the part where he can't go out on missions and fight anymore, which tends to put a slightly sour feeling in his stomach. And... he's visiting Himawari more often, now, because Naruto and Hinata have been surprisingly generous about that, but he tends to end those visits with an ache in his chest and a bleak mood that lasts for the rest of the day.

The cats are... safe territory, things to think about that have no connection to any of his problems. The only memories cats like these bring up tend to be good ones, like the time he'd found a stray cat at home as a child, and had fed her and seen her have her kittens in the yard. He likes that memory. It's nice, from a time when his worries had been few. It has his brother in it, too, because he'd showed his brother the cats and Mangetsu had laughed and let him keep feeding them until they'd finally moved on.

Shikko screams enquiringly up at him, clearly wondering why the string is no longer being deployed for her amusement, and Suigetsu returns to the present. He leans down and scoops her up, cradling her against his chest, and hears the screaming fade away and become that noisy rattling purr. Bikou will probably come looking for them soon, but Suigetsu doesn't mind.

He can always just hold both of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the curious, Shikko is 疾呼, defined as 'shout', and Bikou is 尾行, defined as 'shadow, tail, following.' Thanks, japandict.com, for being a handy source of words!


	18. One Lucky Kid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raising Himawari, caring for cats, wrangling emotions: people get to do a little bit of everything.

Himawari will be turning two, soon. She's growing so quickly, lively and healthy, with a bright sharp smile and the merriest eyes, and Hinata loves to hear that little voice babbling away, lisping through all the words she's been learning, sometimes combining them to express what she wants. Himawari likes red juice, but not orange, at least at the moment; within a month it will probably be the other way around. She likes jelly, and custard, and being carried around on people's shoulders so that she can pretend to be able to fly.

She likes panda toys better than ones that look like dogs - and this had tripped Kiba up at one point, when he'd thought to bring her a present - and she loves it when people sing to her. Her big brother loves her, but he also seems a little wary of her, because if Himawari is pushed too far, she'll bite, and nobody wants an encounter with those pointed little teeth of hers.

And she likes Suigetsu, even if she's too young to understand who he is; she giggles and smiles and tries to play games with him whenever he visits. He comes to see her more often, now, often enough that she remembers him.

They hadn't necessarily _intended_ to invite Suigetsu around so much, but Naruto had been watching him, once, and he'd told Hinata that he'd recognised the kind of look on Suigetsu's face - a hunger to connect, a need for family. Naruto had felt like that for so long, and he's too kind to force someone else to feel like that as well, not when it's so easily fixed.

Hinata sees Suigetsu on those visits, and she agrees with Naruto that there's a need there, an absence in Suigetsu's life, but she isn't sure if this is fixing it, not when Suigetsu looks so much sadder when he leaves than when he arrives. But if he'd wanted to stop coming, he would have, she knows, and thus far he's seemed happy and grateful for every invitation back, promising to rearrange his schedule for it without a moment of hesitation.

He does clearly care about Himawari, and Hinata thinks better of him for it.

She's glad, too, that people seem to have accepted the story about Himawari's birth - but then, with all three of them repeating it if asked, it would be difficult for anyone to find a clue that might suggest it to be anything other than the truth. Thus far, the only rumours Hinata's heard of have been about who they might otherwise have chosen, rather than whether or not it was actually a choice; she's heard from others that some people think Naruto had wanted Sasuke to be the father, but had turned to a friend of Sasuke's when he'd refused.

It is true that Naruto's commented now and then about what a pity it is that Sasuke has no kids, because their kids could have been friends if he had, which probably fuels that particular rumour, but Sasuke seems perfectly happy with Jūgo even if it does mean he'll never have children of his own.

And Suigetsu... doesn't always seem happy, it's true, but it doesn't seem as if his life is too unpleasant these days, from what little Hinata picks up. She occasionally hears him mentioned by friends, and he tells her a little of what's been going on lately if she's the one who's there when he comes to see Himawari, but that's just small talk, light and innocuous, and Hinata knows she has no greater insight into his life than that. They're polite to each other, like civil acquaintances, but their conversations don't dwell on personal matters.

She will never betray her husband again, but she can sense, somehow, that Suigetsu would never even ask her to, not anymore. There's a careful wall of manners around him, and it's probably a natural consequence of having trespassed too deeply and being determined never to do something like that again.

So she simply watches, while he plays with Himawari, and lets herself be pleased that her daughter is happy around him.

Today, she can hear him laughing, and looks over to see Himawari biting at his fingers, making them turn to water whenever those teeth sink in. He pulls his hand away and tousles Himawari's hair, beaming at her. "You are one lucky kid, huh?" he says, still laughing.

"Lucky?" Hinata asks, curiously.

Suigetsu looks over, giving her a bright and buoyant grin. "Yeah. She's got those fangs in front, but those feel like a couple of molars coming in at the back. Seems she's getting a bit of a compromise there, and it means there's so much more she'll be able to eat without hassles."

"Well, that's a relief," Hinata says, laughing. "She's fussy enough about food already without adding one more reason. Two days ago, she decided that she doesn't like bananas anymore, even though they were her favourite a month ago."

"Aw, really?" Suigetsu looks down at Himawari, grinning.

"No 'nanas!" Himawari yells, stamping one little foot. "No 'nanas!"

"That's a real pity, Himawari, 'cos I heard there were some real nice ones and somebody was gonna give them all to you." Suigetsu beams. "But if you don't want them, I get to eat them all instead, lucky me, and you won't get any."

The yelling and stamping stops. Himawari peers suspiciously up at Suigetsu, and pouts.

Trying not to laugh, Hinata retrieves a banana, and offers it to Suigetsu.

"Mm, see, this one's all mine now," Suigetsu says, peeling it with open relish. "I'm gonna eat it all up and then it'll be gone."

"Nooooooo mine!" Himawari's grabbing at his hand.

"What do you say if you want something?" Hinata prompts gently.

Himawari struggles with this one for a moment, and then starts grabbing again. "Pease!"

"Well, okaaaaaaay...." Suigetsu draws this one out, looking reluctant, and offers Himawari the banana, which she begins to devour messily and urgently, trying to claim her prize before anybody else can eat it. "Aw, it really is all gone now. Lucky you." He ruffles up her hair again, and starts cleaning smushed banana off her face.

"Thank you," Hinata whispers, and then disappears into the kitchen where she can laugh without Himawari hearing her.

Suigetsu says his goodbyes and leaves not long after that, and then Naruto's coming home, carrying Boruto, holding him up by both hands and swinging him back and forth.

Smiling, Hinata goes to greet them. "Did you have fun at the playground?"

Naruto laughs sheepishly. "Boruto nearly punched one of the other kids his age," he says, looking down at his son with a mixture of concern and pride. "Kid was bullying one of the little girls, kept pushing her over, and Boruto got mad at him."

"Oh!" Hinata's sure her face must match Naruto's, now. "He's so much like you," she notes, checking to see if Boruto's come to any harm along the way. He seems unhurt, so she breathes a sigh of relief. "I still remember how you stood up for me once, all those years ago."

There's another little laugh from Naruto, and he releases Boruto to go play with his toys. "I'm kinda hoping he gets into a bit less trouble than I did, y'know?"

"Yes." Hinata laughs. "I like you trouble and all, but we'll be watching him, and there's no way he'll get away with any of the pranks you used to pull."

"He won't need to," Naruto says, pulling Hinata into his arms for a hug.

She wraps her arms around him and leans her head against his shoulder, but at the first hint of an unusual sound, she activates her Byakugan. Raising her voice just a little, she calls, "Boruto, don't use your sister's toys to play shinobi army, you have enough for both sides already and it isn't nice to take hers."

The " _Okaaaaaay_ " that floats down to them sounds particularly disappointed, and only a little chastened.

Hinata takes a moment longer to search the house for anything else that needs solving right now, and makes sure Himawari is playing peacefully in the living room, and then she relaxes more fully into Naruto's arms.

"It's just as well I got a little practice at this while minding Mirai," she says, with a little laugh.

"Yeah..." Naruto grins, and kisses her. "But they can't slip a thing past you, can they? Not with those eyes." He plants an extra-light kiss on both her eyelids, and Hinata's smile brightens.

"I hope so, yes." She gives him a happy little sigh as he squeezes her gently, and then leads him into the living room, where they can sit together, arms around each other, and watch Himawari play.

Hinata's attention is divided between watching Himawari, and watching how Naruto responds to Himawari, because it always warms her heart to see him playing around and being silly with the children. He knows how to make Himawari laugh, and the peals of babyish laughter filling the room are enough to make both of them laugh as well.

Naruto really is the best father Boruto and Himawari could possibly have hoped for, she thinks, smiling to herself, and letting go of Naruto's hand only when he needs it free so he can take a toy that Himawari's offering him, inspect it solemnly, and playact its part in the apparent circus act Himawari is staging. It's not as if Himawari has ever actually seen a circus, or even most of the animals that her toys represent, but she isn't letting that stop her, making up noises and movements for all of them. Most of the sounds resemble dogs, admittedly, since that's most of what Himawari has seen, but she seems pleased with herself, and Hinata's very proud of her creativity.

"Do you think she'll be a ninja when she grows up?" Hinata whispers to Naruto. "Maybe she'll be a zookeeper instead."

Naruto laughs. "Maybe she'll be Hokage one day. But she'll be great at whatever she does, I bet. Even if she's a zookeeper instead, or Konoha's best singer."

"Yes, I'm sure she will." Hinata beams at Himawari, who turns her head to smile back, waving a toy buffalo and making garbled 'woof' noises cheerfully.

In just two more days, they'll celebrate Himawari's birthday. She'll be two, then, and she already knows so much that Hinata can't wait to see how her daughter develops over the next year. For this birthday, though, she thinks the nicest idea might be to take Himawari somewhere that she can see a lot of animals. Hopefully she won't be frightened, but Himawari isn't scared of much at all, and she's bound to enjoy it. Boruto will have fun there too, which is important; he'll be able to tell all his friends afterwards about the creatures he's seen.

Hinata leans a little more against Naruto, cuddling up to him, watching her daughter with a smile. Now and then, she looks through the building to be sure that Boruto is still behaving himself.

He's apparently still playing 'shinobi army' in his bedroom, marching the ranks of his toys against each other, and placing the captured ones up on his bed in toy shinobi prison. Some of the match-ups are a little unfair, given all those different sizes of toys, but this doesn't appear to bother Boruto at all.

Everything is going as it ought to be, today, or as close to that as a home with two lively children can really get, and Hinata is happy.

 

* * *

 

By all accounts, Himawari's birthday had been a huge success. They'd gone and seen a great many animals, and Himawari had enjoyed it immensely, Naruto tells Suigetsu when he drops by that evening with a small gift of his own.

It's a little toy cat, and Himawari is very pleased to demonstrate at length that she knows what sounds cats make. Beneath the meowing, Suigetsu listens to Naruto's description of the day, laughing when he hears about Boruto having to be persuaded that he absolutely cannot ride a cow, no matter how much he might want to, and the goat that had stolen a hat from one of the other children there.

"Glad she had a good time. 's nice you got to be there, too, I hear you've been getting a lot of missions lately?" Suigetsu says, tilting his head a little.

"Yeah, it's been really busy, but I wasn't gonna miss out on her birthday, y'know."

Suigetsu nods. "Nah, 'course you wouldn't. I heard for Boruto's last birthday you searched the whole village for some toy he wanted?"

"Ahaha yeah, I kinda didn't realise how popular they were, and everywhere was sold out except this one shop in a back street that ordered a few in by mistake."

"Yeah, I heard you had clones all over the place searching. What would you have done if there weren't any?"

Naruto looks at him like the answer should have been obvious. "Gone somewhere that had them? I woulda gone to Suna and back if I had to."

"Wow. Big trip. Worth it, I guess, if you'd had to go."

"Yeah, worth it..." Naruto shakes his head and smiles. "Except it's lucky they were in the village, because the first one I got was the wrong colour, and I had to go back to that one little shop and swap it over when Hinata told me that."

"Lucky," Suigetsu echoes, nodding.

Seeing the way Naruto dotes on both of these kids... even though it still yanks at Suigetsu's heart that he'll only ever be a visitor in Himawari's life, he has to admit that it's a comfort to know she has two great parents even without him. Better than he would have been, for sure. And they're both so strong, too. Naruto has already proven to the world that he's incredibly hard to kill, so his children are unlikely to lose him, and even if they did, Hinata has so good a support network that she wouldn't need to return to active duty in order to feed them. Boruto and Himawari won't go through what Suigetsu had - or what Naruto had, for that matter.

Something's tapping Suigetsu on the knee. He looks down, and there's Himawari, holding up the toy cat, making meowing noises at him. "Huh? Okay, you wanna play with the cat?" With a sheepish grin at Naruto, he slides down off the couch to play along, and when Himawari gives him the cat so she can play with a figure of a dog, he obligingly makes all the noises.

To his credit, Naruto doesn't laugh aloud even once, but Suigetsu can feel his gaze on him as he prowls around the floor on all fours, moving the little toy cat wherever Himawari wants it to go and meowing as accurately as he can. He does try to mimic an ordinary cat though, not Shikko, because her shrieking might be just a little too alarming for Himawari.

He may not be laughing, but, as Suigetsu discovers, Naruto isn't above making suggestions, and when Hinata comes home from doing the shopping, it's to find Suigetsu with a scarf tied around his waist as a pretend tail, wearing a hat with paper ears taped to it, still doing his best to be the cat that Himawari wants him to be. He hears Hinata's muffled laughter before he sees her, and sits up, with a rueful smile.

"Hi. Himawari wanted to play animals, and Naruto gets ideas -"

"- Hey, what are you trying to say -"

"- so this is just how things go, I guess." He shrugs and laughs.

"You look very sweet," Hinata informs him, looking amused.

Suigetsu grins. "Well, sure, but it's getting late. Okay, Himawari, I gotta go real soon, but you have a replacement cat riiiiight here." With a flourish, he gestures to Naruto, and springs up, going to put the hat onto Naruto's head and the scarf around Naruto's waist while Naruto tries to bat him away, laughing. "Oi, hold still, you're Himawari's new cat, now," he says, tying the scarf into place. Getting up, he says his goodbyes, and heads on out, with one more wave all around.

At least this time the ache in his chest is a little less, though his thoughts are still a complicated tangle.

 

* * *

 

There's something about the way Naruto had looked while Suigetsu had been putting those things on him for Himawari that's bothering Hinata. If she hadn't done the thing that she'd done, she probably wouldn't recognise it, but she _does_ ; it's the little thrill of having hands put on you, even though it's innocuous and you know you shouldn't be reacting like that at all.

That night, when the children are in bed, she sits at the dining table, holding a mug of tea and staring into the steam. She doesn't believe that Naruto would actually do anything, and it hadn't looked like Suigetsu had even noticed the effect he'd had, but there exists a possibility that in spite of everything, Naruto is still attracted to Suigetsu.

Well, there are reasons they'd both succumbed, and Suigetsu's appearance hasn't become any worse aesthetically since those days, but... Hinata doesn't know what to do about this suspicion. With a flicker of worry, she wonders if it's just that she's noticing Suigetsu's looks herself and projecting that idea onto Naruto's behaviour, but... what if it's real? What if she's right?

Then again, what if she's wrong? If she brings it up, and she's incorrect, she could cause a great deal of pain for everyone. And she doesn't want to forbid Suigetsu from returning, not when his coming here makes Himawari happy. It wouldn't be fair to do something like that when nobody is acting on any feelings they have, if those feelings even exist.

Maybe, for now, she should just forget what she'd seen, because if Naruto has had some twinge of desire, he's probably feeling incredibly guilty anyway, and trying to deal with that himself, rather than bring it up and worry her with it. If she's right about what she'd thought she'd seen on his face, then Naruto is probably a lot more worried than she is right now; he wouldn't want to be feeling that way, and is probably quite upset with himself for feeling it.

When Hinata thinks about it, she decides that if he is feeling like that, she doesn't really blame him for it; having the feelings isn't wrong, and hadn't been wrong back then either. It'd only been the bit where they'd acted on them instead of trying to deal with them that had been wrong, and the way they'd mutually betrayed each other's trust in the process.

They've learned better now, all of them, and they can handle this like sensible adults, without anybody getting hurt.

 

* * *

 

It had taken a while for the news to filter back to Karin, but when it had, she hadn't been able to believe it. If there is _anybody_ , in all the world, that she might have thought someone could possibly choose to contribute their genetic material to a family, Suigetsu would be so far below the bottom of that list that he wouldn't even get an entry.

And Naruto and Hinata are so special, so renowned, and even if they'd wanted someone else to help them have a baby, they'd have no end of volunteers, much better choices than Suigetsu.

Karin can sense a lie when she's told it, if she's trying, but Suigetsu actually knows that, and he has this infuriating habit of going quiet on her or talking about irrelevant things, with this stupid look on his face that he definitely knows annoys her, and then she can't read much of anything except that he's deliberately shutting her out of what's going on.

It's much easier to just refuse to care about whatever disasters Suigetsu is getting himself into, and save herself the bother. Besides, he's not the one keeping her from anything she actually wants, not anymore. They're not rivals for anything, though they'll never be friends, because at this point the animosity is just a habit for the both of them. He isn't keeping her away from Sasuke, because it's already too late for that; Sasuke's affections are no longer free for anyone to win.

And she can sense Sasuke's happiness, and how much warmer his chakra is now, so it's hard to deny that the life he's chosen is a good one for him, in spite of her dreams about the true and destined romance she'd always thought they were going to have.

She has to get on with her life without that kind of love in it.

There are some good things, at least; she's been discovering what it's like to have friends, ones who actually care what happens to her, and she can feel that they're genuine about it. And if she'd wound up married to Sasuke, she'd have had to face an issue she usually tries not to think about: children.

Her images of a fairytale future with a couple of perfect children have always involved carefully ignoring certain ugly facts. If she'd had children with Sasuke, they might have inherited his abilities, and become targets for anyone who craves the Sharingan but isn't game to take on someone as powerful as Sasuke to get it. If she'd had children with Sasuke, or with anybody else for that matter, they might have inherited her abilities.

Karin wouldn't want to see a child of hers with a skin scarred by the bites of the greedy. It's better not to risk that, she thinks. She can live with her realisation that she won't be having children when she imagines all the people who might want to use a child of her blood.

It's just a little weird, and more than a little unfair, though, that out of all the members of Taka, the one who apparently gets to pass on their genes is Suigetsu.

_...That poor kid._

Karin hopes Himawari will take mostly after Hinata, because if she doesn't, she's going to be one unlucky little girl.

At least Suigetsu isn't the one raising the kid, though, so there's some hope for her behaviour.

It's bad enough to have him helping to raise the cats; Karin doesn't want to think of the influence he'd be on a child. She's still firmly convinced that Suigetsu's the one who'd put Shikko in her room one night, ensuring that Karin would wake up with a cat standing on her chest and screaming at her until she'd get up and feed the noisy little monster.

Suigetsu had insisted that Shikko must have found her way in there on her own, but he'd been laughing so hard when he'd said it that Karin had refused to believe him, and anyway his chakra had suggested that he hadn't been completely honest, even if he'd been telling some kind of technical truth.

(Later, she discovers the string attached to her door and realises that Shikko had indeed got in there on her own, but Suigetsu had provided something by way of motivation for her to do so. Some things, it seems, never change.)


	19. Permission Given

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto, Hinata and Suigetsu have some important things to discuss.

When Suigetsu gets the chance, he asks Hinata if it's all right if he brings one of the cats around on his next visit, to see if Himawari will enjoy that. He promises to keep a careful eye on the proceedings, and even to ask Jūgo to tell the cat to behave throughout the visit. He knows how much Himawari loves animals, after all, and since she doesn't have a cat of her own at home, he thinks she might at least like to meet one for an hour or two.

When Hinata agrees, though, Suigetsu has to go home and take a long, hard look at those two cats, to choose which one he ought to bring along. Shikko is so noisy, and he doesn't want to alarm Himawari with the noise, but she does participate in games better, which ought to entertain a child more readily. Bikou is quieter, but she appears to think that practically everything is, if not actually edible, then certainly worth a try to find out, and Suigetsu isn't sure if that list is likely to include toddlers.

It's probably going to have to be Shikko.

Jūgo does, obligingly, ask Shikko to behave herself, but warns Suigetsu that she might not choose to listen. Cats can be contrary, even when the person asking them for a favour radiates some sense of trustworthiness that animals in general respond to with friendliness. There are probably reasons why when Jūgo needs to ask an animal to help him out, cats don't tend to be at the top of the list, despite their obvious intelligence.

Suigetsu carries Shikko inside a coat to keep her warm on the way there, and presents her to Himawari with a theatrical flourish.

Himawari is absolutely enchanted. She's staring, eyes wide, mouth open, looking awed and delighted, and when she steps forward, Suigetsu gets down beside her to show her how to pet a cat without hurting it.

After that, it's just a matter of giving her a bit of string and letting her drag it around, laughing, while Shikko chases the string. The two of them are bound to wear each other out somewhat, and Suigetsu can just supervise to make sure everything goes well.

He's joined by Naruto, about ten minutes later, and only then realises that even though they'd let him into the house, they had left him alone with Himawari right up until the point where Naruto comes to see what Himawari's laughing so hard about. It really is a remarkable gesture of trust, and Suigetsu is amazed that they've chosen to give it to him. Naruto's even giving him plenty of space to interact with Himawari, without stepping in or interfering in any way.

When Himawari is finally too worn out to run around anymore, and Hinata has joined them there as well, Suigetsu scoops up Shikko and lets everyone pat her one more time, before it's time for him to take the cat home. He makes a mental note to do something nice for Jūgo, because Shikko really has been on her best behaviour; her shrill meow has only been heard two or three time, and even then, never for very long.

"Lots of fish for you tonight," he promises Shikko, scratching behind her ears, happy to know he's been able to give Himawari a nice new experience because of her.

 

* * *

 

Naruto looks strange again, guilty and unhappy, and Hinata has decided she really needs to do something about it. She's been reading all manner of books, hoping for some ideas, but everything in them seems to end in tragedy, or is so outlandish a solution that she just can't imagine it working. Still, once she starts to follow the pattern, and see which bits actually appear to cause the tragedies, she's started to get some ideas.

Now, with Naruto looking like this, she feels as if her suspicions may have been confirmed, and this is as good a time as any to see if her ideas will be of any use. She waits until the children are in bed, and makes doubly sure that Boruto has gone to sleep, because she definitely doesn't want him hearing this.

Then she invites Naruto into the kitchen for some tea. She waits until they're both sitting down and drinking to say anything.

"Naruto... there's something I'd like to talk about."

"Huh?" Naruto looks worried, suddenly, but manages to smile. "Yeah, sure."

"I saw you watching Suigetsu, and..." Here, Hinata has to pause, because Naruto's choked a little on his tea, and she has to wait for the coughing to die down before she can speak. "Did you... are you... is he still attractive, to you?"

Naruto turns beet-red and looks away. "I... Uh... I _wouldn't_ , though, I _promise_ , I'd never do that again," he begins hastily.

"It's all right," she says quietly. In truth, she really has to take a moment to adjust to knowing she'd been right, but she'd been preparing herself for something like this, so it's not like this is as difficult as it might have been. "I know you wouldn't."

Now, finally, he looks at her, something anxious in his eyes. "I'm sorry, I've tried to make it go away, I just need to try harder and I'll get there."

Hinata takes a deep breath. "What if... you didn't have to?"

Naruto looks blank. "Huh?"

Now it's Hinata's turn to blush, because this is an indelicate topic to be discussing so openly. "What we hurt each other with... it was that we'd hidden something like that from each other. And we promised never to hurt each other like that again. But... if you're not hiding it... it's all right that you feel like that. I don't want you to have to pretend that you don't, because you think it'll hurt me if you admit it."

"Hinata..." His voice is barely more than a whisper, and then Naruto sighs in relief. "If... that's okay... then yeah. It just... _happens_ sometimes. I'm not deliberately thinking about that stuff, I promise. And I'm not ever gonna do anything like that again."

"Well..." Hinata struggles with this one for just a moment or two longer. In truth, she really hadn't been sure, right up until now, that she could say this and be honest about it, and she won't say it unless it's really true. "You could, though."

Now, Naruto doesn't look blank, because blank is too neutral a description. He looks completely and utterly gobsmacked. "I could... what? Hinata, what're you saying? D'you mean cheat again, after we promised we wouldn't?"

"It's not cheating if I tell you it's all right," she says, approximately the colour of a tomato, but pushing on doggedly regardless. "In ancient times there were concubines, and people like that, and that was allowed back then. They didn't think it was cheating. So... I... I thought - if I gave you permission - then even if you never do anything, you at least won't feel bad when you have thoughts like that?"

She feels as if she's been frozen in place while she waits for that idea to filter through all of the things Naruto's probably thinking about.

At last, he looks back up at her with a stubborn expression. "Well, if I'm allowed to think about it, then so are you." He pauses. "... _Do_ you think about it?"

"I try not to," Hinata admits. In truth, thinking about Naruto instead whenever a thought like that seems like it's trying to announce itself has been working fairly well, but she doesn't want to say so, in case it feels like she's shaming Naruto for not being able to shut out his thoughts.

There's a huff of breath from Naruto. "It's... well, uh, if it's okay with you that I sometimes think about stuff I'm not actually gonna do, it's okay with me if you do." He appears to be considering this a little longer before he adds, "Do you... want to know? If I do?"

This is a dilemma worth considering, Hinata decides, about whether or not she really wants to hear what desires her husband is having for someone else, or just to give him free rein to have them without either telling her or feeling guilty about them. In the end, she decides, and tells him, "Only the ones you want to tell me about."

Naruto nods. "Same for you, then." And, suddenly, he catches her eye and starts to laugh, an infectious sound that has her in a matching fit of giggles before she even knows why he's laughing. "Wow," he says, laughing helplessly, "nobody ever told me about this part of being married. Did they tell you? Somebody should've told someone."

"No, they didn't. Maybe we're making it up as we go along?"

"Maybe everybody is?" Naruto suggests, wiping tears of mirth out of his eyes.

"I think so."

 

* * *

 

There's something a bit _odd_ about the way Naruto and Hinata are watching him now, Suigetsu decides; it's not accusing, or angry, just sort of thoughtful, and sometimes a bit amused. He'd ask them what's so funny, but since he's been trying to make a lot of jokes to keep the mood light and stop anything from feeling awkward, he'd rather just assume that's what it is.

Still, they seem like they're more keen to talk to him now; he finds he's having conversations with one or both of them about all kinds of things, and it all feels a whole lot more comfortable somehow. He has to remind himself, now and then, that these are the people he can no longer drop any innuendo around, because the conversations flow so easily that it always feels like it might just happen, the same way it would in any other conversation.

But he'd forfeited that kind of humour almost two years ago, and he doesn't get to bring it back now, no matter how companionable things are getting. He has to mind his manners, Suigetsu reminds himself, because if that's the price he has to pay in order to spend time around his daughter, then he'll put the effort in and pay it.

His daughter... he wonders when he'd started to consistently think of Himawari that way. It might be a dangerous trap to fall into, but here he is, and as long as he behaves himself, it seems as if he might get to be part of her life on a fairly regular basis. She doesn't call him her father, but he can live with that, when he gets to visit her, and bring her presents, and exclaim over the growth milestones she's passing, and do all the other little things that let him feel like he's involved in Himawari's life.

It feels good to be able to care about her, and it feels good to look at the situation and actually let himself believe that this is a chance to care about something without having it suddenly taken away from him.

So he'll behave. He'll resist the urge to make dirty jokes, even if he does know which ones would make Hinata blush, and which ones would make Naruto laugh so hard anything he's drinking might come out of his nose. He'll be careful about what he says and does, because they've offered him some kind of trust, and he can't afford to shatter it again.

 

* * *

 

Hinata is entirely certain that Suigetsu isn't doing any of this deliberately. He's too careful in his actions now, despite his spontaneous nature and his usual difficulties with things like a verbal filter, to be doing this deliberately. He wouldn't put in all that effort, only to ruin it.

And yet... now that she and Naruto have had their little conversation, it's as if some door in her mind has opened again, and she's noticing all kinds of things. Some of them are sweet, like the way Suigetsu appears delighted to carry Himawari around the room on his shoulders. Some are... not exactly that kind of innocent observation, like the way the last drops of any drink he's given linger on his lips for just a moment before he licks them away.

She's not the only one noticing, at least.

Naruto is paying attention, and Hinata knows this because the new pact between them allows him to complain about it.

"Come on," Naruto grumbles one evening, "he can't _possibly_ be clueless, not with that dirty mind. Volunteering to help out by holding things just means he gets to show off his arms while he does it, and he never wears sleeves, and if he's helping you then he's right there beside you making you look -"

Hinata's laughing quietly to herself. "I saw. I still think  he didn't realise you were staring."

"Wait, I was staring? I was trying not to stare. Was I obvious?"

"Mm, not too obvious."

Naruto sighs in relief.

"Do you _want_ him to notice?" Hinata asks, actually a little curious.

" _No_! ...Maybe. I dunno." There's a helpless grimace from Naruto.

This time, when Hinata's idea comes up for discussion, it gets some serious consideration. They're both up late enough discussing it that the next day involves functioning on somewhat less sleep than they might have liked, but they get through it, just as they had the conversation in which multiple different potential plans for the future compete for the chance to be selected as the best idea to be going on with.

They don't get to share their notions with Suigetsu for almost a week, because it takes that long before he drops by the house in the evening, not to see Himawari, but to leave a little set of toy kunai that had been included as a novelty promotion in a delivery to Tenten's shop. He says he'd thought Boruto might like them.

While she makes a cup of tea for everyone, Hinata exchanges a glance with Naruto, and sees him nod. "Suigetsu," she begins, "we've been thinking about some things, and..."

"And Hinata says it's okay if, y'know... you and me... uh, if you still wanna do things..." Naruto stumbles over his part of the explanation.

Neither of them are really prepared for Suigetsu's reaction.

He sighs, just once, and gives them a long and awfully tired stare. "If you don't want me coming around anymore, you can just say so. You don't need to trick me into saying something bad so you can have an excuse." With that, he gets up slowly.

_He really believes that,_ Hinata realises, staring at Suigetsu. _He really believes this is some kind of trap we're using to get rid of him._ "Suigetsu, wait," she says quietly, a hint of a plea in her voice. "No-one's going to make you do anything, and we don't want to get rid of you." When she and Naruto had been talking this over, this is just about the only thing they hadn't taken into account: the notion that Suigetsu might think they're playing some cruel joke on him, or simply reject them outright. All of their discussions had hinged upon the idea that Suigetsu, who had been so obviously interested in the past, would have continued to be interested up to this point.

"We wouldn't do that to you," Naruto agrees firmly.

Suigetsu looks back and forth between them, his expression still openly unhappy. "What, you're really saying after all the shit that went down last time, you guys have had a nice chat and now _you_ -" and he points at Naruto - "are totally cool with jumping into bed with me all over again, and _you_ -" looking at Hinata - "don't mind the idea that I might be screwing your husband? Seriously?" Whatever he sees in their faces in response to his questions appears to be enough to convince him of their sincerity, though probably not their rationality.

He backs up, just a bit, shaking his head. "...You actually mean that."

"Yeah, of course," says Naruto, face still red after Suigetsu's comments.

"I..." Suigetsu shakes his head again, looking hopeful and strangely horrified by turns. "I, uh... I need to... think about this... I can't just..."

"It's okay," Hinata tells him, wishing they'd found some better way of bringing up the subject, something that wouldn't have made him feel like this. "If you don't want to, it's okay." Suddenly, she realises what part of the problem must be, and adds, "We won't stop inviting you around to see Himawari either way."

Suigetsu nods slowly. "I'll... see you later," he says, though, and heads out with a great deal more haste than is usual for him.

"That didn't go very well," Naruto notes as the door closes.

"I guess we did kind of surprise him," Hinata says, still a little worried. "I hope he's all right..."

 

* * *

 

Suigetsu doesn't even make it home before the sheer ridiculous enormity of the situation is too much for him. He sits on a public bench, head in his hands, and wonders what particular supernatural entity he must've pissed off, for his life to get this weird.

Naruto had just... _propositioned_ him, in front of Hinata - with Hinata's help, even! That can't possibly be normal.

Why would they even want to go down that road again, after what'd happened last time?

It's true that they're both absurdly forgiving, but _this_?

And he already feels ridiculous, because he'd been willing to sneak around for secret dalliances with both of them, but now something they both know about is apparently too much for him.

_But I learned better,_ he insists, stubbornly, to himself. _I'm not like that anymore. I wouldn't do that._

What's he supposed to do now? Oh, Hinata had said that he could still come and visit Himawari regardless, and now that he's thinking about it he knows she wouldn't promise something like that unless she meant it, but... hadn't he got himself into enough trouble already? He'd needed Sasuke to help him last time; what would Sasuke think, if he were to jump right back into this kind of trouble at the first available opportunity? After Sasuke's intervened like that to protect him, doesn't he kind of owe it to him to be more careful now?

That's still the closest friend Suigetsu has in this place that he's thinking about, and he doesn't want to disappoint him that way, not after last time.

But... does it really count as trouble if Naruto and Hinata are inviting him deliberately? True, they might not exactly be making the best choice - just because they're willing to involve him doesn't mean it's going to turn out well - but it is their choice, and they have to have thought through the ramifications, don't they? At least, he hopes they have.

Does he even want this anymore? Suigetsu's still wondering about that, too. It doesn't seem like it's going to be both of them, now, which is kind of a pity because he's getting all sorts of interesting mental images involving both of them now that everybody knows what's going on. But it might be only Naruto, now, which isn't bad as such, given how much he'd enjoyed all the things he'd done with Naruto before, and yet...

Suigetsu shakes his head a little. If Hinata doesn't want to revisit that kind of thing, she's free to decide that, even if it does make him wonder what it'll be like to have her knowing what he might do with Naruto. It's all a little too complicated, though, when he thinks about how to deal with both of them, and where everybody will stand with each other in general.

He needs to think this over, in detail, and not answer until he's sure of what will be the best course of action, because if he gets it wrong this time, things might be even harder to fix than they had been before.

_Well, I'm not going to get much sleep tonight,_ Suigetsu thinks wryly, and gets up.

For now, it's time to go home.


	20. Ready When You Are

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suigetsu makes his choice; Naruto gets busy. More than once.

In the end, it takes more than just one night for Suigetsu to consider his options. He doesn't return immediately to the Uzumaki household - but he also doesn't tell anyone else about his dilemma, not even those few who do actually notice that he has something on his mind. This isn't something he can get advice on, really, under these circumstances. Anyone who already knows will have their own opinion of the situation firmly in place by now, and anyone who doesn't can't be allowed to find out.

By the time Suigetsu does drop by again, he's still a little nervous about the ramifications of the answer he's going to give, but he can't sit on the fence forever, and once he's really thinking about it, there does seem to be just one obvious choice that will take him to where he wants to be.

He's chosen a time that he knows Naruto tends to be at home, and when he knocks on the door, it is indeed Naruto who answers it.

"Uh, hey, Hinata took the kids out to visit Hanabi, sorry, so they're not here," Naruto informs him, looking a little awkward. "Listen, sorry we sprang an idea like that on you, didn't mean to upset you or anything..."

Suigetsu shrugs a little. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah, sure." Naruto lets him in, watching him with an air of caution.

"...Okay." Suigetsu's eyeing Naruto, hands stuffed into his pockets, trying to seem more casual than he actually feels.

"Huh?" Naruto blinks.

"I said okay. As in... okay, I'm up for it if you are."

It takes a little bit longer for Naruto to process this, and then he's going very pink and swallowing hard. "What, _really_? Uh, _when_? I mean, uh, not like I'm saying it's gotta be -"

"How about right now?" Suigetsu's grinning now, a whole lot of his confidence coming back at the sight of Naruto getting all flustered - and that flustered look is only increasing as Naruto registers that suggestion. A glance downward informs Suigetsu that even if Naruto can't quite seem to work out what he wants to say, his body is already declaring a vote in the direction of 'yes please.'

"Uh - yeah - yeah, okay, yes," Naruto babbles, looking confused and excited at the same time.

"Great." Suigetsu isn't sure quite when Hinata's likely to bring the kids back, so he doesn't want to waste any time. Because sure, she knows about it now, but the kids definitely don't need to, and he 's remembering that Naruto can get pretty vocal sometimes.

Naruto looks like he has no idea what to do now. Suigetsu decides to save him the effort of deciding, and takes three quick steps to close the gap between then. He grabs the front of Naruto's jacket and leans in, grinning, giving Naruto just enough time to realise what's going on before kissing him.

It's rough, and clumsy, and Suigetsu's pretty sure one of his teeth has nicked Naruto's lips, and the amount of enthusiasm there is enough to make him glad he'd picked this option, and he's entirely certain that Naruto's glad of it too, with the way Naruto's clutching at his back now and moaning into that kiss as Suigetsu drops a hand down to stroke him through his pants.

By the time Suigetsu stops, Naruto's panting, and looks almost as if he might come on the spot if Suigetsu tries anything else right now. That'd be one hell of a waste, Suigetsu thinks, so he just grins a little more, and nods in the general direction of the bedroom. "You wanna move this along over there?"

"Yeah -" Naruto practically trips over his own feet in his hurry to get to the bedroom, especially since he's trying to pull off his clothes as he goes.

Suigetsu follows, taking a bit more time about it, and by the time he's closed the door behind them both, Naruto's standing beside the bed, stark naked and obviously turned on. Suigetsu grins at him. "Didn't need to go pulling it all off," he says teasingly. "Ripping your clothes off is part of the fun." Nobody needs to rip any of Suigetsu's clothes off, though, because he just semi-hydrifies and lets them fall off him, stepping out of the pile. He takes a moment to retrieve the contents of one pocket, and then he's pulling Naruto into another kiss, longer and more intense, and pushing him down onto the bed.

Naruto's blushing pretty much all the way down, but he's going along with this eagerly.

Suigetsu wonders if Hinata's going to get the actual details of this, and the thought excites him, the mental image of Naruto, red and stammering as he tells Hinata every little detail of how he's been fucked. Maybe it'll turn them both on all over again? Suigetsu wants to imagine that it would, that Naruto and Hinata will feel compelled to fuck on account of what Suigetsu's done. It's almost like he's involved, then, even if he's already left them to it by the time that happens.

He's making Naruto whine and gasp and swear a little, now, working two lubed-up and shape-shifted fingers into his ass, showing Naruto just how much he remembers of what Naruto really loves to feel.

"Might have to be quick about this," Suigetsu notes, casual despite his own arousal, "but I'm gonna make really fuckin' sure you remember it." He pulls his fingers away, and hears Naruto choking back a sound of protest at the loss. He won't give him time to miss it for long, though, because he's lifting Naruto's hips and guiding himself into Naruto's ass without any further delay. One quick, brutal thrust lets him sink in all the way, and gets the kind of breathless little cry from Naruto that really gets Suigetsu going, knowing just how much of that Naruto has to have felt, and how hard.

He isn't slow, or gentle, or tender about this; he's promised quick, and quick is what he delivers on, slamming into Naruto with thrust after thrust that all combine to make sure Naruto can't manage more than a couple of words at a time, and not many of those make sense other than the ones that are begging for more.

Naruto comes with a throat full of garbled cries and an ass full of a cock shifted to fill him until he can't take even the slightest bit more, body shaking, back arching, eyes wide, and Suigetsu comes not long after, savouring everything he's managed to do to Naruto just now.

He shifts away, and lies down beside him, just for a little while, grinning. "Might wanna try this in the bathroom, next time," he suggests. "Hate to get blood everywhere on a nice bed like this, and I bet you miss the biting, huh?"

"Y-yeah..." The admission alone seems to shake Naruto, but he's smiling the foolish blissed-out smile of the well-fucked.

"I'll come by again for you real soon," Suigetsu promises, and pulls him into another, much lazier kiss.

They shower, one at a time, though Suigetsu fully intends to join him there next time, and get themselves all tidied up so that by the time Hinata returns with the kids, they're both clean and dressed and sitting in the living room waiting for her.

"Hi," Suigetsu says, waving, and then he has to turn more of his attention toward Himawari, who's come running over to demand he give her a hug. He still has enough awareness to spare for Naruto and Hinata, though, enough to see the look Hinata gives Naruto, the one that says she's realised exactly what he's been doing today, and the way Naruto nods to confirm it, smiling sheepishly.

She goes over to kiss Naruto, smiling, and sits beside him, and Suigetsu knows for sure then that she doesn't mind at all, even knowing that her husband's been having a good time while she's been out.

Right now, though, everybody gets to be part of family time, because the kids need attention, and they're going to get it. Himawari falls asleep after a while, with Suigetsu still holding her, but Boruto is busy telling Naruto about all the feats he'd accomplished on the playground, and it takes him a little longer before his eyelids start to droop and his head starts nodding.

They're left to nap until dinnertime, and Hinata kisses each of them on the forehead and lets them sleep on the couch while she gets up to go prepare the meal.

"You're welcome to stay," she tells Suigetsu, over her shoulder.

"Only if I help cook," he counters, lightly. "Wouldn't feel right, otherwise."

With Naruto leaning against the doorway and watching because there isn't enough room for all three of them to participate in the cooking at the same time, Suigetsu helps Hinata out with the cooking.

She keeps looking between them, and a funny little smile keeps popping up on her face every time she does.

"Hey, Hinata, what's so funny?" Naruto asks after a while, a little plaintively.

"Nothing," she says, smiling again. "But you look so happy today." Her gaze shifts toward Suigetsu to include him. "So do you. Please do keep coming here as our guest?"

That might be the most unusual way to phrase 'feel free to keep having sex with my husband' aside from the actual phrase itself, which is already unusual, Suigetsu thinks, and almost laughs, but he's also touched by the sentiment. She really does like that everyone is happier now, it seems.

"Trust me, I plan to," Suigetsu assures her, peeling vegetables with a little extra flourish.

He does leave, after dinner, to head home and get some rest, but he's already looking forward to the next time he can visit them.

 

* * *

 

Hinata had expected to have to deal with a bit of jealousy, in spite of having told Naruto that he can do this. She'd expected to feel a little odd about it, and to have to deal with that.

And yet... she _doesn't_ , and she's surprised. She's not sure why, but seeing Suigetsu and Naruto, and knowing they must have had sex, doesn't stir up even a twinge of jealousy in her. Suigetsu looks happier, more relaxed, as if something has been settled for him, and so does Naruto, who looks like he's had a chance to discard a great many worries in a very short period of time. He must have missed that, she supposes, and there's nothing bitter or hurt in that realisation.

That's why, once the children are in bed, and she's alone with Naruto, she reaches out to take his hand, and leans in to kiss him. "I hope you had a nice time," she says, and she can feel her own sincerity in every word.

Some final hint of worry dissolves in Naruto's demeanour, and he nods, wrapping his arms around her. "...Yeah, I did."

"Good." Naruto's stroking her hair, not even a little bit less affectionate after what he's been doing, and Hinata gives a happy little hum.

"Y'know... if you wanna do the same thing, you can, I won't mind," Naruto tells her, after a while.

Hinata blinks, and looks up at him. "Thank you. I'll... see what happens, then." If Suigetsu's still interested in her, anyway. After that unfortunate initial approach, she's learned that it doesn't pay to make assumptions about that anymore. At the moment, though, the idea isn't as interesting as the thought of spending a little more time with Naruto. Maybe that's where the jealousy she'd been expecting has gone? Perhaps it's simply transformed into an urge to get hold of her husband and make sure _she_ gets to make him feel good as well tonight?

He doesn't look too tired, at least, but Naruto's hard to exhaust, so Hinata quite likes her odds as she nestles in and whispers in his ear, "Do you want to come to bed with me now?" And with the way her fingers curl around his wrist, stroking the pulse point there, she can feel the way his pulse jumps and know for sure that she's made it quite clear that she doesn't just intend for them to be sleeping.

Naruto looks at her, eyes widening for a moment, and nods, before he kisses her with more enthusiasm than he had before, looking delighted.

They disappear into their bedroom, shushing each other with little giggles between kisses, reminding each other that they're going to have to be quiet if they don't want to wake the children. It feels a little naughtier, stealing a moment like this, having to be as quiet as possible, and Hinata's eager to enjoy the thrill of that mood.

Undressing each other, still trading kisses that almost dissolve into laughter whenever an attempt to pull some clothes off gets in the way, they tumble into bed, and Hinata runs her hands over Naruto's body, exploring it with just as much wonder and delight as if it were the first time she'd been able to experience it. She loves the way his voice thickens as he says her name when she's touching him, the way those eyes become a darker blue, even more intense, the way his skin feels beneath her fingertips. She loves all of him, and it's in moments like this one that she really gets to express that.

His kisses are so urgent, now, and Naruto is reaching for her, touching her as if she represents everything precious in the world, so tenderly that Hinata’s breath catches for just a moment before she kisses him yet again and gives herself over to everything they both want. They’re gentle with each other, but no less passionate for it, and when it’s all over and Naruto is fast asleep beside her, Hinata can only look at him and smile, thankful all over again that someone like Naruto is her husband. 

She curls up with him and closes her eyes, and dreams of dancing in sunlight. 

 

* * *

 

Suigetsu’s in a good mood all day, after yesterday’s experiences; he’s cheerful enough to charm several people into buying a few things they don’t, strictly speaking, need, but had been sort of weighing up until he’d tipped the balance for them. Everything finally seems like it’s looking up for him, he thinks; he’s back on intimate terms with Naruto, and Hinata knows and isn’t mad at him for it, and he can keep right on visiting their home, both for that and so that he can spend time around his daughter. 

He wonders, a little, how old a child ought to be before they can get their first set of toy weapons; three or four, perhaps, if the toys are soft enough? He’d love to be able to give some to Himawari, though he knows he’d probably better start with toy shuriken, so soft that throwing them would have all the impact of trying to blow feathers across the room, without even the same impression of a jutsu in the making that the feathers might cause people to imagine. 

Later, though, perhaps toy kunai, and then wooden swords, and then… he might actually be the one to give Himawari her very first blade, the traditional way, just as if everything were how it’d be if he’d fathered a child openly back in Kiri. 

It’s a wonderful thought, and all that beaming paternal pride actually manages to distract him for the rest of the day from thoughts of what he’d like to do with Naruto. 

After that, though, those thoughts return in force, apparently even stronger for having taken the day off to rest and train. They’ve brought reinforcements, this time, and all of them parade through his head, as vivid as if they were really happening. 

Suigetsu spends the next two days looking for an opportunity to put his thoughts into action, and finds it when Hinata and her children go to visit their aunt. A house free of kids is a house it’s fine to get a little loud in, and he sure hopes this is going to get a little loud. 

And there’s Naruto, right on time, coming back from a training session; Suigetsu comes up behind him, grinning, and asks, “Mind if I come in?” 

Judging by the way Naruto practically pulls him into the house, Suigetsu's not the only one who's been having interesting thoughts. He grins at Naruto. "Hope you're not all worn out already."

"Of course not!" Naruto actually sounds mildly indignant.

"Oh good." Suigetsu laughs. "Guessing you're gonna have a shower, yeah? Why don't I help out?"

There's an emphatic nod from Naruto, whose enthusiasm is already clear, and he hurries up to the bathroom with Suigetsu trailing in his wake.

Suigetsu sits on the rim of the bathtub and starts pulling off his clothes, looking cheerfully at Naruto. "Why don't you start getting clean, and then we can get you dirty all over again?" he jokes.

He stays there, watching, while Naruto gets into the shower, just enjoying the sight of him while he's washing away the sweat and grime of a morning's training session, occasionally commenting on a few features, because Naruto goes red when told he has a nice ass, which makes it an irresistible sort of compliment to give when that kind of reaction is on offer.

Depending upon how explicitly it's phrased, Naruto can, in fact, be induced to go pink right down to the ass in question. Naturally, Suigetsu is exploiting this.

Eventually, though, he gets sick of just watching and teasing, and steps into the shower. There are a few awkward moments while they both suddenly have to arrange where they're standing to fit better in that space, but once this is out of the way, Suigetsu has all the chances he needs to run his hands over wet skin, and nip at Naruto's shoulder from behind.

"Bet you just can't wait, can you?" He slides a hand down to run his fingers over Naruto's cock, and feels it twitch in his grip, just as he hears the sharply indrawn breath that accompanies it. "Well? Whatcha wanna do, huh?"

"Smug bastard," Naruto grumbles, but his voice wobbles as Suigetsu strokes his cock again. "Just... just fuck me already -"

"Hah, you really _do_ want it that bad." Suigetsu suspects that Naruto can hear his grin, even if he can't see it, as he pushes Naruto up against the tiles of the shower wall. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna make you wait."

They're still beneath the flow of water from the shower, and so Suigetsu doesn't even try to hold back with his hydrification, not when he can keep his strength up so easily. Half-hydrified fingers work Naruto's ass until he's shivering and trying to grind his hips against something, anything, even the unyielding tiles, for something like relief, and it's only then that Suigetsu switches to his cock. He keeps Naruto pinned against the wall all the while, knowing Naruto could shake him off in a heartbeat, knowing also that right now Naruto would do practically anything else rather than do that and have Suigetsu stop for any reason.

Suigetsu's teeth sink into Naruto's shoulder, and he hears the thin, reedy moan that follows, feels the way Naruto's body jerks in his grip, and bites down again, harder. He's drawn blood, he can taste it, but Naruto's just slipping back into a state where "yes" and "please" are just about the only coherent words he seems to know. He's rough enough with Naruto that he hears several of those moans break in Naruto's throat, breath and sense and reason driven out of him by the force of Suigetsu's thrusts.

And Naruto is _loving_ it - nobody could sound like that otherwise, Suigetsu's sure of that. He'd never met anybody who'd liked it _this_ rough before, and it's amazing, knowing he's the only one who could possibly do all this to Naruto.

He draws it out for as long as he can, but in the end, Suigetsu's pushing Naruto over the edge, hearing one more rough-edged cry escape in a voice already hoarse from every single moan and plea and cry that had come before it, and the way Naruto's ass squeezes around his cock is enough to push Suigetsu into coming as well.

Their panting is audible even over the sound of the shower.

Suigetsu holds Naruto up, or possibly uses him for support, or both; he's not quite sure which it is, right now. Once their breathing has settled and their hearts stop racing, they slowly help each other to get cleaned up.

Naruto's already healing, and he has enough energy that this time, he's the one who finds a spot for Suigetsu to lie down, guiding him into the bedroom.

"But -" Suigetsu protests. He's tired, but surely he can still walk home, and nap there.

"Just stay here, okay?" Naruto says, rather than let him declare he's leaving. "Not hurting anybody to just borrow the bed, y'know."

"I... okay." Suigetsu yawns. Much as he'd enjoyed playing it rough and being in charge, if Naruto had wanted another round Suigetsu's doubtful he could do anything like that again until after he's had some kind of nap. It'd been a long day anyway, compounded by constantly slipping away to work out where Naruto have been and where he'd been going. Still, he refuses to think about work right now, along with any of the other things that had made his day so long.

They've all been worth it, anyway, as long as the day's included sex as good as that.

So he'll nap, and recover, and make sure he has all his strength for the next time he decides to liven up his day in the best way possible.


	21. Playing Games

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fun and games in the Uzumaki household.

Suigetsu had, in fact, been planning to drop around to the Uzumaki household today, but that's not where he finds Hinata; he encounters her at the store, buying milk, bright and early in the morning. Now that he's stopped trying to avoid her, it seems that he's back to bumping into her in random places; he'd actually had to work at staying away from her before to avoid that kind of thing.

She's holding onto Himawari's hand as the toddler stands beside her, and she's looking around with some concern.

"Boruto?" she calls, and again, more loudly. "Boruto, where are you?"

"Vanished, has he?" Suigetsu says, coming over to her. "I'll look after Himawari while you look for him, if you want? I figure you'll find him faster with your Byakugan than I would without it."

Hinata nods gratefully, and scoops up Himawari, depositing her in Suigetsu's arms, before she turns to start searching, Byakugan active, clearly scanning the space around her.

Suigetsu, watching her, sees the point where her tense shoulders suddenly relax, and knows her search must have been successful. "Got him?"

"Yes, I'll just retrieve him, even if he's in safe hands with Ino." She's hurrying off, leaving Suigetsu to hold Himawari in the meantime.

For her part, Himawari appears to consider this just fine, wrapping her little arms around Suigetsu's neck and beaming up at him. It's nice, really, how much she likes his company, Suigetsu thinks, smiling at her. And he is all the more grateful, suddenly, for the polite excuse that Naruto and Hinata had come up with, the one that lets him admit in any way at all that Himawari's his. He can hold his own daughter, smile at her, play with her, instead of slinking around trying to never be anywhere that she is in case somebody compares him to her and uses it against her.

It's not honest, as such, but in a way it's true all the same.

When Hinata finally returns, towing a grumbling Boruto by one hand, Suigetsu's holding Himawari up in the air, zooming her around as if she's flying, because it makes her giggle a lot whenever he does it. He looks over, and grins at Boruto.

"Tryna pull a vanishing act, huh? Might as well just ask your mother first, since she's gonna find you anyway, huh?"

The aggrieved sigh that greets this would do credit to a weary old man of ninety, and it makes Suigetsu laugh all over again.

"Aw, c'mon, kiddo," he says, holding Himawari with one arm so he can tousle Boruto's hair. "Cheer up a bit, okay? Maybe if you behave next time you'll get a bit more time to play, instead of getting everybody looking for you?"

"That _is_ playing," mutters Boruto, and Suigetsu snorts.

"Man, I don't know how my brother managed with me, if I was anything like this."

"Your brother?" Boruto looks up.

"Yeah, and if you stay put while all this shopping gets done, I'll tell you a real cool story about him, how's that sound?"

"It'd better be _really_ cool."

"It will be," Suigetsu says confidently.

While Hinata gets her shopping done, after she'd mouthed a silent thank-you to him for the help, Suigetsu keeps Boruto occupied by spinning a story about the day that Mangetsu had defeated several opponents at once, with one of the Seven Swords, having only begun to practice with that particular blade a week beforehand. He goes into detail about the fight when he sees how round Boruto's eyes get at the description, and makes it as dramatic as possible.

Boruto seems outright disappointed when Hinata returns before the story's over, so Suigetsu promises to accompany them back - and hearing the tale of one lone warrior destroying everything around him with explosions is enough to keep Boruto quietly engaged all the way home.

Hinata lets them all inside and Boruto disappears to go play - from the way he grabs a duster as he goes, the story has sparked his imagination and he intends to go and play at being a Swordsman like Mangetsu.

The idea makes Suigetsu happy; if he can do nothing else for his brother, he can let him live on in the imagination of children, powerful and skilled and heroic.

Once Himawari is deeply engrossed in playing with a collection of toys on the floor of the living room, Suigetsu takes his leave. He'll be back later, but for now, he has work to do.

 

* * *

 

When Suigetsu drops by for the second time that day, Hinata isn't expecting him. She's just set Himawari down for an afternoon nap when the knock on the door comes, and when she sees it's Suigetsu she realises that she's going to have to tell him that.

"Oh, Suigetsu... Himawari's asleep now, and Naruto's taken Boruto out for the afternoon - but if you come in, I'll make you a cup of tea?"

Suigetsu makes a face, then grins at her. "What if I don't wanna be a cup of tea?"

It takes Hinata a moment to get that kind of joke, but she laughs quietly once she does. "Then I can just make you welcome?"

"Oh, well, in that case, I don't mind being that." He steps inside, still grinning.

"Once Himawari wakes up you could spend some time with her, but getting her to sleep is difficult enough at the moment that I don't want to wake her," Hinata explains, and sees a sympathetic little grimace appear on Suigetsu's face.

"Wow, yeah, of course not, I wouldn't want to wake her up," he agrees.

She does, in fact, make a cup of tea for him, now that he's got the corny little joke out of the way, and he sits beside her on her couch to drink it. It's been a while since she was this close to him, Hinata thinks, and wonders if she ought to tell him what Naruto's said After some thought, though, she decides to let him finish his tea; if he doesn't actually want that kind of thing anymore, then she doesn't want to make him feel awkward, like he has to rush to leave or something, because that seems to have become his preferred choice of action when things do get awkward.

"Does Boruto do that a lot?" he asks, looking over at her.

"Yes." Hinata smiles wryly. "He's not afraid of anything, so he thinks he ought to be able to go anywhere and do anything, even though he's still so young." In truth, she envies her son that trait, just a little, when she thinks about how shy and timid she'd been as a child. Trying to keep Boruto safe is hard work, but she wouldn't ever want to take that kind of spirit away from him.

"I used to be like that too, I think," Suigetsu says, with a laugh. "I think it took about a shipload of stress off my brother's mind when I started being able to use our family jutsu consistently and my antics stopped being quite so risky as a result. I'm guessing you're gonna be using your Byakugan a lot on this one."

"Yes, I think so," Hinata agrees, and when Suigetsu sets down his teacup, she gives him a sidelong look. "...Boruto looks up to you," she says at last. It's not what she'd meant to say, but it's true all the same, so she goes on. "He doesn't exactly understand everything, but he likes it when you visit. As long as they're not... too gory, I'm sure he'd like to hear more stories from you."

"I think I could tell him a few, yeah," Suigetsu agrees, looking thoughtful. "Not too gory, huh? Yeah, I think I can manage that."

"...It'll be good for him, to know a lot of people who come from a lot of different places. He'll grow up being able to understand people better, that way."

"Good point. I missed out on a few things I'm having to learn as I go," Suigetsu says, "and if I'd learned 'em as a kid I'd probably have had an easier time of it. But he's already got something that'll help him a lot - you and Naruto. With you around, I figure he'll have a better time of it."

"I hope so." Hinata mulls that one over, and is certain it will be better; Boruto won't have to be alone, the way Naruto had been, and she never wants to make her son feel like he's not strong enough or not good enough, no matter what happens. She smiles, and nods, and tells Suigetsu, "I'm glad you'll be around so much. It's nice."

"Huh? Well, thanks?"

Twisting her hands together, Hinata searches for the right words, and finally says, "I hope... you are Naruto are having a nice time. I mean, I... He said I could..."

"...He told you that you could do the same thing, right?" To Hinata's immense relief, Suigetsu picks up on that without making her come out and say all of it.

"Well, yes, but not if you... don't want to..." She would have looked away, but he catches her chin lightly with his fingers, leans in, and kisses her. She remembers this, how it had felt, and it's better now, without any guilt to get in the way.

When their lips part, he smiles, and tells her, "Don't worry, I want to."

"Oh - well - good?" She can't think of anything else to say, really. Instead, she just kisses him again.

A hint of sound from upstairs separates them, and Suigetsu grins ruefully. "Later, I guess? I think that's Himawari waking up."

"Yes, and she'll be hungry." Hinata gets up, still feeling a little giddy with excitement. She'd been more worried than she'd wanted to let on, even to herself, that Suigetsu might no longer be interested, and that he might take the suggestion as some kind of pressure to do something about it just to stay on the good side of the people who could keep him from seeing his daughter.

It's not as if she'd ever want to do that, of course, but she's come to realise over time that that's how Suigetsu might see it, because he has reasons enough to find trust a difficult word. Maybe one day, trust will come easily to him, but she's not going to expect it to before then; it wouldn't be fair.

He's not like Naruto, who trusts gladly, who opens his heart to the world and reaches out to make everyone his friend. And Hinata loves that about Naruto, but she's not going to hold someone else to that standard who's lived a different life, with a different nature.

Right now, of course, the important thing to do is to feed Himawari her snack before she starts crying for it, and then Himawari can play with Suigetsu for a while. That is, Hinata is sure, why Suigetsu had come here in the first place, and it'll make Himawari happy, because she always has a good time when Suigetsu comes to see her.

Today, it transpires, is the kind of day in which what Himawari really wants is a chance to play at riding a horse by being carried around on Suigetsu's shoulders.

"She saw a horse, yesterday, and she's still excited about it," Hinata explains.

"Oh, right." Suigetsu grins, and manages to whinny in a vaguely accurate manner for Himawari, who's laughing gleefully and holding onto his hair like reins. "If she wants a horse, she gets a horse," he says with amused resignation, and trots around the living room making horse noises until Himawari's finally satisfied.

It takes half an hour, but he's apparently indulgent enough to keep it up for all that time, though he does look just a little relieved when Himawari finally announces that she wants to play dolls instead. By the time Naruto returns with Boruto, Suigetsu's on his knees beside Himawari, dutifully moving a couple of dolls about so that they can do something, though Hinata's not clear on what exactly is going on. Possibly the ones Suigetsu is holding are attendants for the one Himawari has? There's a lot of miniaturised bowing going on, at least.

When he does finally leave, Hinata notes with relief that Suigetsu has done them the supreme favour of wearing Himawari out enough that she's likely to go to sleep on schedule, but not so much that she'll be cross and fretful in the meantime, which is a difficult line to walk, and Hinata's impressed that Suigetsu appears to have managed it.

She gets to spend the rest of her evening with the children, and with Naruto, who's feeling so obviously cuddly that he even joins her in washing up the dishes, only to keep an arm around her waist the whole time and work one-handed, more like an extra arm attached to her own working processes than an extra person joining in. It's fair enough, though, since his being that close means all she has to do is turn her head, now and again, and she can steal all the kisses she wants to.

Doing the dishes takes about twice as long, this way, but it's about ten times more enjoyable, so that's a fair tradeoff in Hinata's eyes.

Naruto's mood isn't any less affectionate by the time they go to bed, either, and with the way he starts kissing and nibbling at her neck as soon as they close the bedroom door, Hinata doesn't waste any time about peeling off her clothes, because she knows exactly what he wants, and she wants the same thing, preferably as soon as possible.

They fall onto the bed together, narrowly avoiding bumping heads, and Hinata laughs, rolling them over so that she's on top of Naruto, who looks absolutely delighted with this turn of events. While it's true that they have to be quiet, with two young children sleeping in the house, Hinata knows they can still enjoy themselves - just at a lower volume. And since she knows Naruto likes it this way, and it's fun for her too, she'll be happy to ride him this time.

The only part of this that's ever inconvenient is the bouncing, and Naruto's eager hands - or failing that, her own when his are busy - provide all the support she'll need in lieu of a bra, so that's fine as well. And kissing Naruto, making love to him, seeing his face when they're together like this... these are the kinds of things that make Hinata happy in ways she couldn't possibly hope to describe, and not just because she wouldn't want to go talking about her love-life. 

She sleeps, afterwards, wrapped up in Naruto's arms, and feels as if all the world is as perfect as it could possibly be.

 

* * *

 

It's another few days before Suigetsu can return, on a day in which Boruto and Himawari are spending the afternoon with Hanabi. Suigetsu likes spending time with the kids, after all, but that's not his only reason to visit the Uzumaki household, and his other purpose is, as ever, better accomplished while they're away.

Something about his demeanour must have tipped off Hinata, because when she lets him into the house she's going a little pink, and keeps sneaking glances at him that suggest she's having all manner of thoughts about him right now. That's a good thing, really; it means they're both on the same page here.

"So, Hinata," he begins, and enjoys the tiny little jump as she turns back to face him. "You free for the rest of the afternoon?"

"Well, ah... yes?" Hinata's pink, and smiling and so hopeful that it's actually really gratifying.

 _She's missed this. She has Naruto, and she really does love him, but... she still wants me, she really does._ It's an amazing thought to have. After this long around both Hinata and Naruto, he's been able to see for himself just how much they love each other - and yet they both still desire him. He's had the most complete confirmation of this that anybody could ever possibly hope to have with Naruto, but now he knows it for sure about Hinata as well. The invitations had been one thing, those had been a kind of first step, but actually putting  those invitations into practice is something else entirely, far beyond that first step.

Or perhaps... it's all one thing, and he's just been looking at it the wrong way around. He's not sure. The only part he is sure of is that Naruto and Hinata love each other, that they both like him, and that he does, in fact, like both of them. And now he gets to spend some time with Hinata all over again, without doing anything wrong or hurting anyone.

Smiling, Suigetsu leans in and kisses her, wrapping his arms around her, and feels her arms wrap around him in return. "Where do you wanna do this?" he whispers in her ear once that kiss is broken. "Bathroom? Bedroom? Right here on the floor if we get impatient?" His laughter filters through his voice on that last one, and he hears her laugh as well, even if she is blushing heavily.

"I think... what we really need is a bath," she whispers in return, drawn into a conspiratorial tone by his attitude.

"Well then, you got it." Suigetsu grins broadly, and scoops Hinata up, making her squeak, and then he carries her to the bathroom while she protests laughingly about how she can walk and he doesn't need to carry her anyway. "Aw, c'mon, let a guy sweep you off your feet, okay?" he says, voice wheedling. "I just really wanna, even if it's not necessary."

Hinata's still laughing, but she does nod and wrap her arms around him to secure herself there. "Well, all right, if you really have to." Her grin makes it clear that there's no complaint there.

"I think I do." Once they're in the bathroom, he sets her down gently, with a playful little kiss to the tip of her nose, and turns to run the bath. He's sufficiently focused on that task that even the rustles of cloth from behind him aren't preparation enough for how it feels to turn off the taps and turn around to find Hinata standing there, naked and smiling at him, that beautiful body illuminated by sunlight streaming into the room.

"You're gorgeous," he says quietly, and watches as that blush stains her skin.

"I'm happy." She seems so serene, and then that illusion is broken as she laughs and steps into the bath. "Well, come on, or the water will get cold," she calls back to him, all mirth now.

Suigetsu laughs, and climbs in after her. "I'm coming, I'm coming."

"Not yet, you're not, or I'll be a little disappointed," Hinata teases.

"Whoa, _Hinata,_ when'd you get that dirty?" Suigetsu's cracking up, now, right up until she shuts him up by putting both hands on his head and dunking him under the water. He's still grinning when he pops back up again, though. "You're right, though, that's for later." He's running a hand up her thigh, now, and watching her go from merriment to pleasure as his fingers caress her.

The soft little 'mm' she makes is all the encouragement he needs, and Suigetsu slides closer to kiss her again, drawing upon the water around him with hardly more than a thought so he can touch her all over, all at once. He knows how to make her feel good, and he's going to use that knowledge, without guilt or shame or anything but desire and affection, the way he thinks it should always have been. Her thighs part just a little more, automatically, welcoming his touch as his fingers work on and around her clit, as other fingers dip inside her to find all the places she likes to be touched. In this state, petty physical limitations like how many fingers he can have, how they can bend and how many of them he can fit into any given spot are a whole lot more negotiable, and Suigetsu believes in exploiting that kind of thing for all it's worth.

He really has missed seeing her like this, flushed and eager, and the sound of her voice is doing things to his patience - and it's not like he has an unlimited supply of that in any case. He shifts closer again, adjust how much of his body is present and where, and sinks into her the moment she starts trying to climb onto him, his eyes closing for just a moment at the feel of her around his cock.

He's slow with her, and careful, trying not to let his eagerness speed things up too much, but he knows how to move with her, and how to alter himself so that his every thrust finds all the best spots  - and, too, with his abilities he can just keep toying with her clit using water-formed fingers with nary a worry that they'll get in the way.

And getting to see her at her climax, now, when things are so much better? He's going to remember this for a very long time, he's sure of it. The sight alone might have been enough to push him the rest of the way to his own peak, but her moan, the way her muscles tighten around him? More than enough, and he stops trying to hold back, just letting the sensations overtake him.

Afterwards, when they've caught their breath, he helps her to wash her hair, and almost feels more intimate in doing that than he had even during sex. She's even letting him brush it, looking sleepily content, and Suigetsu's decided he really doesn't mind spoiling her that way, not when it makes her so happy.

"Stay?" she suggests, getting out of the water and drying herself off.

Suigetsu considers this for just a little longer, and then he nods. "Yeah, your bed's nicer than mine," he says lightly.

"It is?" Hinata blinks.

"Well, yeah. Mine's only got me in it, so yours is so much better." Suigetsu grins.

"Oh." Hinata laughs.

He follows her to bed and crawls in beside her, yawning a little. "It's a pity I can't just say 'let's keep going until morning' like we could go for the rest of the afternoon and all night, but I don't think we're gonna be managing something like that. At least... not without a nap or two along the way."

"That's all right. I think I agree about the naps, anyway." Hinata yawns as well, though she covers it with her hand. Nevertheless, this inspires yet another yawn from Suigetsu, because yawning is contagious.

"Just... for a little while..." One more yawn, and then he's dozing off.

It's a very good time to be asleep, even if he doesn't know how long he'll be there.


	22. Logistics Problem-Solving In Action

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suigetsu, Hinata, and Naruto cooperate. In bed.

Suigetsu's eyes open, and it takes him a moment to adjust. He's not in his own bed. He's not in his own room. He's not even in his own _home_. All the sounds are wrong outside and he has no idea what time it is.

Memory kicks in, and he relaxes.

_Oh, right, I was napping with Hinata._

He still doesn't know what time it is, but at least he's clear on where he is and why he's there now, which is a significant improvement.

On the other hand, he can hear more than one person breathing in the room.

That particular realisation is enough to get him sitting bolt upright, looking around wildly, but... there are no sinister figures lurking in the bedroom watching him, nobody waiting to attack from behind the curtains.

There's only Hinata, and on her other side, Naruto. Unlike Hinata, and Suigetsu himself, Naruto's got clothes on, but he's fast asleep and smiling to himself, one hand resting lightly on Hinata's hip. He must have come home and decided he needed a bit of sleep as well, Suigetsu realises, and now he's even gladder that everybody currently in this bedroom has resolved their issues with each other, because this would have been a much more awkward situation otherwise.

As it is, though, it's weird, but also sort of nice, Suigetsu decides. Naruto can come home, find his wife asleep in bed and decide he wants to take a nap with her, without being bothered by the part where Suigetsu's in the same bed.

Barely in the same bed, anyway. He'd woken up on the very edge, which finally makes sense now that he's aware that all three of them are in here. Staying away from the edge might have been possible, but then he'd have woken up when Naruto had got in bed, probably, so there wouldn't have been any of this confusion in the first place.

Suigetsu shrugs a little, lying back down and shifting in a little closer so he doesn't feel like he's about to fall out of the bed. If they're going to be mature and calm about this, then he is going to maturely and calmly finish his nap, because with all three of them in here it's so warm that all he wants to do is go back to sleep.

The sleepy little noises from Naruto and Hinata as they move over to accommodate him are comfortable sounds, casual sounds, the kinds of sounds that come from people so relaxed that they see no reason to wake up all the way. They know he's there, right down to the little bits of their minds that keep track of things while they sleep, and it doesn't bother either of them at all. That's unusual, but it's definitely an improvement, he thinks.

Settling down again, Suigetsu tries to make himself just as relaxed as they are.

His second nap can't have lasted for very long, because when he wakes again, the light is still much the same as it had been. This time, though, Naruto is already awake, and Hinata is stirring as well. That's probably what had woken him, actually.

"...Hi?" Suigetsu offers, barely above a whisper, with an awkward little smile at Naruto.

"Hi." Naruto's smile is completely untroubled, open and guileless and welcoming. For some reason, he appears to have adapted to this already, while Suigetsu is still getting his bearings, which does make some things easier but is also a little bit vexing.

Suigetsu's used to being the one who can think of the outrageous things, say what he wants to say, surprise people and enjoy their reactions, but this time he's the one being surprised. _Oh well, I suppose I can't get mad if he has one over on me this time,_ he thinks, and his smile becomes just that little bit more natural.

"Been working?" he asks, more casually.

"Yeah, Kakashi-sensei had a lot of stuff for me to do. But I've got the rest of the day free. Oh, hey." Naruto brightens further, if such a thing is possible, and leans down to kiss Hinata lightly now that she's entirely awake. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes," she murmurs, rubbing her eyes and smiling at him.

Suigetsu watches as they cuddle up to each other, and reflects upon how easy it would be to feel like the odd one out here. They are married, after all, and they have their love for each other, which isn't something he has, so this kind of thing is probably only natural, or as natural as anything can be expected to be under the circumstances. It's probably just as well that he doesn't actually love them, he tells himself, because he wouldn't have been able to compete with this. Since he just likes them instead, he can accept that his role is a little different, and that he could no more compete with them than the toaster competes with the kettle - they do different things, so a rivalry would be foolish and only highlight the weaknesses in both.

And now that they're done being cuddly, he's curious about something. "Oi, Naruto."

"Yeah?" Naruto looks up, puzzled.

"C'mere a minute?" He beckons, and Naruto moves over to where Suigetsu can whisper into his ear.

The effect is immediate: Naruto's reduced to a blushing and stammering mess, looking back and forth between Suigetsu and Hinata without any apparent ability to remember how words work. Suigetsu grins at him.

"I - _well_ \- uh - if you _want_ \- and if -" Naruto breaks off, looking at Hinata, who looks a bit confused.

Suigetsu's grin widens. "Hey, Hinata, feels like I'm keeping you from some quality Naruto time. I don't wanna do anything like that, but I'm greedy as well, and he is right here, so why don't we share him?" He offers the words up like a joke - and indeed, if she reacts negatively he'll probably claim it _is_ one, because life's so much easier when he has an excuse like 'just kidding' up the sleeve he is not in fact wearing.

Hinata goes as red as Naruto, but - she's actually thinking about it, Suigetsu can tell, which makes him wonder if he's going to need that excuse after all.

"S-share him?" she manages to say.

"Well, yeah?" Suigetsu's grin turns absolutely filthy. "He can give you all the attention you want, I can give him some attention, everybody wins." He winks at Naruto, who is now approximately the colour of beetroot. "Especially you."

Hinata glances between them, and then, with a nod so decisive it actually startles Suigetsu and seems to have startled her a little too, says, "Well, all right then."

Suigetsu beams, slipping out of bed to go fetch a few things. By the time he's back in the bed, Naruto and Hinata are kissing again, and seem to be in complete agreement. He slides over to Naruto, squeezing his backside just enough to make Naruto start a little and laugh, and whispers a fresh set of suggestions in Naruto's ear.

From there, he gets to sit back and watch as Naruto starts kissing his way down Hinata's body, gets to see the way Hinata stretches out and parts her thighs as Naruto settles between them, gets to enjoy the look on her face as Naruto puts his mouth to work for her... and then, Suigetsu figures, it's time to stop watching and start joining in. He moves over behind Naruto, coats his fingers in the lube he's retrieved, and starts to slowly work them into Naruto's ass.

Naruto's moan is, unsurprisingly, rather muffled, but no less heartfelt for that fact. He recovers quickly and returns to what he's doing, but every time Suigetsu's fingers move in just the right way, a shudder of pleasure runs through his body and he lets out some more interesting little noises. Suigetsu's trying not to be so distracting that Naruto will forget how to get Hinata off, though, because that wouldn't be any fun at all.

From the sounds Hinata's making, though, Naruto definitely hasn't forgotten. Watching her from behind Naruto, Suigetsu enjoys the look on Hinata's face as she comes. He knows from past experience that she'll probably be ready for more soon, but until then, he'd rather just let Naruto hold her, and keep up his own slow movements to torment Naruto just a little bit.

The flush that's spread across Naruto's skin is an impressive one, really, and Suigetsu's taking the time to appreciate it. He's not taken by surprise when Hinata finally reaches out to draw Naruto closer to her, though; he's been expecting that.

"Hey, Hinata, you want him to fuck you, right? You want to feel what it's like, and see his face when I'm fucking him while he's fucking you?"

Hinata's very pink, but she nods.

After that, as far as Suigetsu's concerned, things get a little bit technical. The logistics of whose limbs go where have to be taken care of, and it might have killed the mood if they hadn't all been excited by the novelty value of what they'll be doing. At least they're taking it slow, which means any problems can be spotted and corrected before they can become bigger issues that might convince them that it would be easier to just lie in bed reading a book or something.

Suigetsu waits until Naruto's settled himself on top of Hinata before he moves in to take advantage of all those slow and careful preparations, his cock sinking smoothly into Naruto's ass with a thrust that makes Naruto choke back a moan and Hinata gasp a little.

"Almost like I'm fucking you myself, isn't it?" Suigetsu notes to Hinata from over Naruto's shoulder, grinning at her. "Because when I do _this_ -" and he gives another sharp, brutal thrust that pulls a wonderfully shaky sound from between Naruto's lips - "I know _you're_ feeling it too."

Since that observation is having the desired effect upon both of them, Suigetsu picks up the pace. He doesn't even mind that he can hear himself; why shouldn't he be making some noise when something this great is happening? Anyway, Naruto and Hinata are louder. He's heard the both of them individually, in the past, but never at the same time, and the way their voices combine is hotter than he could ever have thought possible. When they cling to each other, gasping, moaning, and he gets to feel like he's the one responsible for making both of them feel this good at once, Suigetsu feels so incredibly powerful - but fond, as well, because their pleasure is something he can give, and he can take care of them by giving it.

He hasn't shifted his size, this time, because that always seems to take Naruto over the edge so quickly, and Suigetsu would prefer to draw things out and give Hinata a chance to enjoy it some more. Over and over, his thrusts move all of them together - and now Naruto's managed to get used to it, and is matching his rhythm to Suigetsu's. For a little while, at least - soon enough, Naruto's movements become more erratic as he loses control, and it's Suigetsu's turn to try to adapt to him instead.

Naruto's low cry, when he does come, is more emphatic than any shout; he sounds as though every single bit of sensation he could have felt has risen to its highest and is now ebbing away, leaving him drained and stranded like tide-washed driftwood. He slumps, a little, evidently trying not to squash Hinata, but equally evidently worn out.

Suigetsu remembers the bit of fun with clones they'd had once, and realises that getting it both ways must have been just a bit too intense for Naruto. When he goes to move away, however, Naruto reaches back and catches his wrist.

"'m fine, just gimme a minute?" Naruto begs. And indeed, that incredible capability of his to recover from things already seems to be working.

Hinata has already shifted away from under Naruto, though, and she's sitting up. Her expression is bright with interest, for all that she's still flushed.

By the time they've shifted around a little and got themselves rearranged, Naruto has recovered in every way that matters, though he doesn't seem to know why he's on his back with a pillow lifting his hips until Suigetsu's back in his ass - and, viewed over Hinata's shoulder, is obviously stunned when she climbs on top of him so that she can ride him while embracing Suigetsu.

"Just lie back and relax," Suigetsu advises him, laughing a bit. "We'll take care of everything."

Naruto nods, hands coming up to trace the curves of Hinata's backside with obvious appreciation.

Holding onto Naruto's hips, Suigetsu has his hands full, but Hinata has hers free, and so she can do as she likes. She's caressing Suigetsu's chest, and pulling him into a kiss, and every time she rolls her hips he gets to see the look on her face, the way it feels for her to use Naruto's cock to get herself off, and it drives him to quicken his pace, thrusting into Naruto hard enough that he can hear it beneath their mingled voices.

At one point, it dawns upon him that the soft hoarse swearing he's hearing is is own - he hadn't even realised, too caught up in everything that's going on.

Hinata's clinging to his shoulders, now, her eyes closed, and seeing her expression transform as her orgasm overtakes her makes Suigetsu feel like he's been the one fucking her all along, and when that thought and his knowledge it's Naruto he's fucking collide, they become a confused erotic tangle that tells him he really is fucking both of them at once, and that's enough to push him over the edge. He comes, fingers digging into Naruto's hips hard enough to leave bruises on anyone without that healing factor, and is only dimly aware of the part where Naruto's coming again soon afterwards.

Suigetsu is... exhausted, if he's honest with himself, and the others aren't in any better state than he is. And now they have the task of untangling themselves, as carefully as they can manage. Hinata moves away and flops onto the bed, on her side, smiling, stealing glances at Naruto and Suigetsu constantly. For his part, Suigetsu eases himself gradually out of Naruto's ass and slides the pillow out from under him. Taking a peek, he sees the dazed and blissful look on Naruto's face, and smiles crookedly. He probably looks pretty similar himself, he suspects.

But that's okay. After something like that, he's entitled to.

It takes them a little longer to remember what their legs are for, but after that, they help each other to the bathroom to get clean, and when they get back, Suigetsu sees two tired-looking Naruto clones disappearing, leaving behind a bed whose linen they've changed in the meantime.

"Can you stay awake?" Hinata asks sleepily.

Suigetsu looks over at her. "Yeah, why?"

"I just need... fifteen minutes, maybe? And then I can go fetch the children."

"Oh, sure." Suigetsu smothers a yawn, and sits back to wait it out while Naruto and Hinata get just a little bit more rest. In truth, he doesn't blame them; family life is exhausting, so they're going to need their energy back to deal with it.

He gives Hinata the fifteen minutes she's asked for, before gently shaking her awake. "You gonna be okay now?" he asks, tilting his head a little.

"Yes, thank you. And by the time I get back, Naruto will be at full strength again, so he'll be able to take care of things."

"Okay then." Suigetsu considers the options, and says, "I'll come by another day to say hi to the kids, but I might go home and get some real sleep now." He grins briefly. "Away from anybody who'll tempt me to wear myself out again."

"All right." Hinata smiles up at him, comes closer, and gives him a fleeting little kiss. "Until next time."

Suigetsu's smiling, now, more than he'd thought he would. "Yeah. Next time. Tell Naruto I said seeya later?"

"I will."

There isn't much of anything to say after that - well, that's not quite correct, there's plenty to say, as there generally is, but all of it would involve making excuses to stay a little longer, and Suigetsu knows he needs to get home and get some rest, and Hinata needs to go and pick up Boruto and Himawari from Hanabi, and Naruto needs to get those few extra precious minutes of uninterrupted sleep so he can have the energy to deal with the kids until it's their bedtime. It's better to cut things off there, so that's what Suigetsu will do.

He heads on home, ignoring the odd looks the others give him as he comes inside, and locks himself in his room. Sleep is quick to follow, the kind of deep and all-consuming oblivion in which he won't even remember if he dreams.

 

* * *

 

Sasuke is, if he's honest, a little uneasy. Suigetsu coming home exhausted isn't unheard of, true, but after what he'd discovered of Suigetsu's Konoha hobbies in the past, it's a little worrisome.

Perhaps he's just training especially hard, though. His job does involve weapons testing, after all.

That's probably the best option here.

He can't have taken up with Naruto or Hinata again, can he? Not after everything that had happened? No, they both know about all that now, and in any case Suigetsu had seemed as if he'd been feeling genuinely guilty for a while there after everything had been revealed.

Perhaps he's found some new lover? If he has, there aren't many ways that anybody he could choose would be a more disastrous choice than last time, so the situation will _probably_ have improved.

Sasuke's mind blanks out in merciful self-defense as he tries to imagine any more ill-advised choices of partner for Suigetsu. He's so very glad of that, because there are some things he just doesn't want to picture. At least none of the people whose names had swum toward the surface like fish in a pond before his brain had shut the subject down would be likely to be interested, and that is something of a comfort to him.

He hears the footsteps, even through his thoughts, and feels Jūgo's large hands settle onto his shoulders, massaging the tense muscles there. He sighs in appreciation. Sometimes it seems like he's always tense, but when he's with Jūgo he can take hold of a few precious moments of relaxation and treasure them. He turns, wrapping his arm around Jūgo's waist and leaning against his chest.

"What's wrong?" Jūgo asks quietly, leaning down to kiss him.

"I was just wondering why Suigetsu was so tired."

"Oh." Jūgo doesn't enquire further. He knows as well as anybody else in this household what kinds of things can happen if Suigetsu is putting his full attention and energy into some goal, and so it's clear that he immediately understands why Sasuke might worry about it. "I made you some tea?" he offers, instead.

"Thanks." The tea might get cold if they're not careful, because Sasuke doesn't really want to disentangle himself from Jūgo to drink something, but it'd be rude to waste it, and he knows it'll help once he does. With a mostly-stifled sigh, he stands fully upright again, and goes to get that tea.

The part where he's choosing to drink it while sitting with Jūgo, practically in his lap, with Jūgo's arms around him, is fairly helpful too.


	23. Moments To Remember

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sasuke has a reasonably nice day.

Shikamaru knows what's going on. He may have stopped the active surveillance, but he still keeps watch sometimes, and he's managed to work out that the things he'd discovered before have not, in fact, stopped.

Unfortunately, there's nothing he can really do about it now.

Sasuke had been quite clear about the consequences if he tries to move behind the scenes again, and he can't speak to Naruto or Hinata about this, because they already know. If they didn't, they wouldn't have chosen to put about that story about Himawari.

That part, at least, Shikamaru can understand, even approve of when it's considered in the context of the overall situation; Himawari is an innocent party in all of this, and she doesn't deserve the kind of stigma that would fall upon her if the truth got out, unlike the man who'd fathered her. And when he thinks about it in terms of his own goals, this is definitely the better course.

Getting someone else to help him in conceiving a child won't destroy the public respect that Naruto needs in order to become Hokage, unlike the truth of the situation. It would be counterproductive for Shikamaru to do anything to contradict that.

And since he'd gone for the option he'd chosen last time, he doubts that talking to Suigetsu would get him anything better than an argument. Whatever bridges might have been available there have long since been burned, and it's too late to do anything about that now.

Sitting on a rooftop, watching the smoke from his cigarette as it filters upward to join the clouds, Shikamaru considers his options. Right now, the only one that seems viable is to play along with the Uzumaki household's charade, and keep an ear open for anyone who might be about to discover and expose them. It won't be long before Naruto is Hokage; Kakashi is already talking about the schedule for meetings to confirm it, and once it's been approved by the daimyō and the jōnin of Konoha, everything will progress quite quickly from there.

After that, Shikamaru will be Naruto's adviser, and he might be able to drop a quiet word in his ear about what he might need to do in order to avoid some kind of scandal.

In the eyes of the public, Naruto is a hero.

He has to stay that way, but ensuring that needn't be a matter of sneaking around and trying to fix this behind the scenes. It can be a matter, instead, of keeping a finger on the pulse of the rumour-mill and making sure everything stays discreet for just long enough that the really delicate period will be over.

Either way, this is all so very troublesome, but Shikamaru had known there might be difficulties in dealing with the intricacies of official positions; he just hadn't thought that those difficulties would turn out to look like this.

 

* * *

 

Sasuke has been in and out of the village so much, lately, with Jūgo at his side, that he's had to rely upon Suigetsu and Karin to feed and look after the cats. He can't take Shikko and Bikou with him, not with the kinds of places he's investigating. Truth be told, he might have chosen to do this alone, but Jūgo can take care of himself, and is actually safer beside Sasuke, where his rages can be controlled.

At need, too, Sasuke knows that Jūgo can and will help him to use the senjutsu Susano'o he'd used so effectively during the war, and there might be things out there that are better off faced with that kind of trick up his sleeve.

These are all quite sensible tactical reasons to bring Jūgo along, but they're not the only reasons.

He loves Jūgo, and he feels better with Jūgo by his side.

Sometimes it really is that simple.

Sasuke glances to his left, where Jūgo is keeping pace with him as they approach the gates of Konoha, and offers him a very small smile, the tiniest movement of his lips, which Jūgo, ever-attentive to what's going on with Sasuke, notices immediately, and smiles back.

"Let's go home before you make your report?" Jūgo suggests. "You need a decent meal before you speak to the Hokage."

Sasuke shrugs. "We might not have time for that, but we can eat something first," he agrees. They can probably take a shower, too; their last destination on their way back into this dimension had not been a pleasant one, and Sasuke knows they both smell fairly strongly of the filth there.

Jūgo nods, and they make their way back into Konoha, and back to their home, where the cats immediately climb all over them, meowing so piteously that one would think they hadn't been fed in months - even if, when Sasuke glances over, the little chart has been ticked to confirm that they've been fed earlier today.

Karin just ticks it, when she marks off that she's done it. Suigetsu puts little fanged smiley faces on the chart. Apparently Suigetsu had been the last one to feed the cats, judging by the marks, and he tends to be fairly generous with the food. There's no way these cats are starving, for all that they're doing their very best impression of being on the brink of expiring from hunger.

Sasuke scratches Bikou's ears while he looks around the house. Karin and Suigetsu are both out, right now. He and Jūgo have the house to themselves.

And Jūgo has already disappeared into the bathroom to take a very hasty shower. Sasuke considers joining him there, but decides that would take up a little more time than he really ought to spend here before making that report. Instead, he waits, and Jūgo returns quickly.

"I'll make something while you shower," Jūgo tells him, and Sasuke nods, going to get himself clean.

It feels good to have a real shower again, Sasuke can't pretend it doesn't; even if he's fully capable of weathering the harsh conditions out on the road, that doesn't mean he doesn't enjoy getting a chance to experience the comforts of home again when he gets back. Especially after that last dimension. Sasuke doesn't stop scrubbing until he can't smell himself anymore, and he's sure nobody else except possibly an Inuzuka would be able to smell him either.

Once he feels really, truly clean, Sasuke gets out again, and goes to find the food that Jūgo has made for him. He wishes he could stay, but part of ensuring that he gets left alone most of the time involves delivering his reports when they need to be delivered. And so, still licking the last grains of rice from his onigiri from his fingers, Sasuke makes the trip to the Hokage's office.

Kakashi tends to be a little chatty, sometimes, a little inclined to trying to appeal to Team Seven nostalgia, but even he can't do much in the face on monosyllabic replies, which is all Sasuke's inclined to give right now. He also doesn't rise to the bait offered when Kakashi is lamenting how cold his student is to him right now. All he wants to do is get this over with and go home so he can spend some time with Jūgo.

It seems, however, that it just won't be that simple.

On the way out, he narrowly avoids a collision with a pair of genin, their forehead protectors still so bright and shiny that they have to be brand new.

"We're so sorry!" one of them says, bowing, eyes wide. "My friend bet me a bag of candy I couldn't beat him if we raced over here, so we were really just focusing on that and we didn't see you there."

"You're Uchiha Sasuke, aren't you?" the other one asks. He sounds... awed? "I heard you're the second most powerful ninja in the whole village!"

Sasuke considers this statement. "Probably." He supposes he isn't the most powerful, given what had happened with Naruto, but without any false modesty involved, when he considers the others he can only conclude that he has more power than them. Oh, some of them can do things he can't, but Sasuke's not one to lie about this kind of thing, not even when that might be the polite thing to do.

"Could you show us something? You know, something cool we can learn?" the second genin begs.

He doesn't really want to. Whoever is in charge of these genin ought to be the one teaching them, not Sasuke, especially when they seem so new that he doubts they've reached the point where their sensei's knowledge is no longer good enough. But the way they're looking at him makes him think, for some reason, that he shouldn't just say no to them.

At last, an idea comes to him, one that will demonstrate a useful technique and get him out of here quickly as well. It probably isn't what they'd consider 'cool,' but it could save their lives one day if they learn it and hone it properly.

"Remember this one," he says, and makes no secret of either his hand seal or his movements as he uses a shunshin to land on a roof three blocks away.

From there, he hops down and turns to continue his walk home.

"Oh! Hello, Sasuke!" Ino's voice comes from behind him, and Sasuke stops. He turns to look at her as she comes closer, her son trailing after her. "Have you met my Inojin? Inojin, this is Uchiha Sasuke."

There's a half-hearted little wave from Inojin, who's watching him with bright assessing eyes. "Hi..."

"Anyway, Sasuke, Sai had a message for you, so if you could drop in on him later that would help? I think it's about something you might be in a position to spot, since you spend a fair amount of time outside the village."

"All right." Sasuke nods. Sai isn't exactly the 'pointless social calls' type, so it's probably important. And Sasuke suspects that Ino knows more or less what the message is about, but he can understand why she wouldn't want to speculate about it in public. If it's important enough for Sai to bring Sasuke into it, it's probably important enough that talking about it where they might be overheard would be a bad idea. "I'll come and see him this evening."

"Thank you, I'll tell him that." Ino hesitates a moment. "If it's this evening, I could set a place for you...? Since you'd have to be coming over especially."

"I'll eat at home," Sasuke says, mildly enough. While it's true that she's added one more interruption to his route home and he doesn't want to have dinner with her, he can tell the offer of hospitality is a sincere one, and the sincerity helps a lot. Nevertheless, he's moving on as soon as he can.

A small child chases a stray puppy across his path. An old man nearly spills a crate of drinks on him. A pair of teenage girls trail him for half a street, whispering and giggling. Sasuke keeps moving.

He's genuinely relieved to get home and close the door behind him.

It seems that Suigetsu and Karin are still not home - they're probably both working right now. Jūgo, on the other hand, is sitting on the couch with Bikou on his lap, twitching a cat toy now and then to entertain Shikko. He looks up as Sasuke enters, and his expression lights up into the kind of especially warm smile he gives to nobody but Sasuke.

That smile's enough to make Sasuke smile a little as well, and he comes over to sit beside Jūgo, avoiding Shikko's attempt to twine around his ankles.

"Everything done for today?" asks Jūgo, leaning in to kiss him lightly.

"Mhm." He leans against Jūgo, closing his eyes and shutting everything else out. With his eyes closed, even his Rinnegan tells him nothing, so there aren't any distractions to take him out of the moment. He's home, he has Jūgo here, and there's nobody around to interrupt them.

Well, almost nobody. His brows twitch a little as he feels Shikko climbing his leg, her claws pricking the skin even through his clothing. She clambers into his lap and curls up there, purring loudly. Sasuke opens his eyes and glances down at her before giving in, beginning to pet her. The purring gets louder.

Jūgo wraps an arm around him and pulls him in closer. "We're probably going to have to do something about the things we've been finding," he says regretfully. "But not right now, at least."

"No, not right now," Sasuke agrees. He feels Jūgo's free hand settle on his knee, and then Jūgo is slowly rubbing the top of his leg, conveying so much affection with just that little thing. He'd return the gesture, but he knows that Shikko will object noisily if he stops petting her. She's done that before, and he doesn't really want to hear all that indignant feline screaming right now. Jūgo will just have to handle this for now, and it's not as if he looks like he minds that at all.

At last, Shikko hops down from Sasuke's lap, and his hand is his own again. He reaches up to touch Jūgo's cheek, his fingers tracing the lines of his face, before gently pulling him into another kiss, longer and more intimate now.

From Jūgo's lap comes the inquisitive little chirp of Bikou, but she's not actually getting in the way, so they can ignore her for now, though Sasuke hopes she'll absent herself before things go much further. If nothing else, they can always drop a little extra food in the bowls, and both cats will be much too busy to bother them.

Jūgo's whispering something affectionate in Sasuke's ear while Sasuke glances down at Bikou, and Sasuke smiles. There are some things Jūgo prefers to say when there's no-one else around - mostly because their reactions are a distraction, though, because he doesn't appear to have any compunctions against saying how he feels for any reason but that one. He's not ashamed of any of it, Sasuke knows, but other people can be a nuisance.

Their affection is interrupted again by the sound of Shikko getting herself ready to go after Sasuke's dangling sleeve, so Sasuke stands. "Let's just give them something to eat," he says.

"Then they'll know if they want food they can just do this again." Jūgo reaches out and picks Shikko up, talking to her quietly and seriously. When he sets her down, she stalks off back to her basket to curl up. Bikou is next, but she's easier to encourage to leave. "I just had to ask them nicely," Jūgo says, getting up, looking pleased.

"Good." Sasuke's making his way to the bedroom, with a backwards glance inviting Jūgo to follow. Once they're in there, they'll be able to close the door, and keep any further interruptions at bay.

Jūgo discards his clothes almost as soon as they've closed the door behind them, and helps Sasuke pull his clothing off as well. It gives Sasuke a chance to look at him, to appreciate the lines of his body, the way the muscles stand out beneath the skin without ever becoming so bulky as to be unwieldy. Jūgo's strength is clear, highlighted by that body, at rest or in motion. Sasuke reaches out, trailing his fingertips down Jūgo's chest and belly, watching the faint flush bloom and spread in the wake of his touch. He looks up, feels his face caught with incredible gentleness between Jūgo's hands, and then Jūgo's bending to kiss him, more eagerly now, and with growing urgency.

Sasuke's hand dips lower still, curls about Jūgo, and he hears the soft groan, between kisses, that tells him near as much of how Jūgo wants this as the way Jūgo stirs and grows hard beneath his fingers. There is a lot there to touch, as there always is, but Sasuke knows already what he can do that Jūgo likes best, and now Jūgo's hands are roaming across his body too, the warmth of them infusing him with an even greater warmth in turn.

"Sasuke..." Jūgo's whisper is so close that his breath touches Sasuke's lips as he speaks, and his eyes are full of adoration and longing. Sasuke's eyes don't unsettle him; they never have, not for as long as Sasuke has looked into Jūgo's eyes and seen only love and loyalty there, without a flicker of discomfort or doubt.

But then, those eyes are Jūgo's freedom to walk about in the sunlight, knowing he'll harm no-one. No wonder, perhaps, that he accepts them more than anyone else ever would or could.

Sasuke settles into bed with Jūgo, passing him the lube he's snagged from out of the bedside table, and between their kisses, he feels Jūgo's slick fingers touching him, working with incredible care into his ass. He hears his own breathing grow a little more ragged as those large fingers push deeper, maddeningly slow, so gentle it's almost a torment in its own right to be teased into pleasure by only the slightest and most delicate movements. His little hiss of breath is a confession, in its own way, and Jūgo looks pleased to hear it.

He can't just lie back and feel this any longer, though; with a surge of impatient desire, Sasuke shifts, sitting up, and at his whisper, Jūgo sits up as well, leaning back against the headboard.

It's Jūgo's hands that steady him as he straggles Jūgo's lap; Jūgo's hands that guide him as he sinks slowly onto Jūgo's cock, the sensation of being filled so completely making Sasuke moan; and it's Jūgo's arms that wrap around him, holding him close as Sasuke begins to move, using the strength of his own body to get everything he needs -

\- and _need_ is the only word he can use for it now, with the way he craves this, the way thinking of anything else at all right now would be impossible.

Moment by moment, he rides Jūgo's cock, hearing Jūgo moan and answering it in kind, pushing them both further, and every time he sinks down all the way, he gets to feel it all over again, the fullness of having Jūgo sink so deeply into him. One of Jūgo's hands wraps around Sasuke's cock, stroking it urgently, and suddenly Sasuke's voice is good for little more than raw, hoarse gasps, because everything is too much, too perfect, and he never wants it to end, even as he longs for the way he'll feel when they find their peak.

His wild cry, the way he spills himself freely upon Jūgo, feeling Jūgo come inside him, and hearing and seeing all of Jūgo's ecstasy - Sasuke's Sharingan gleams, searing the moment into his memory forever, activated without thought by the intensity of everything he's feeling. This, he can hold in his mind ever after, and he will, because he hadn't planned to use his Sharingan, but can only be thankful for the happiest of all uses for its power.

No matter what happens, he has good memories to set against the bad, candles to hold back the darkness.

Sasuke rests his forehead upon Jūgo's shoulder, feeling his pulse slow, his breathing gradually settling back to its normal rate. Jūgo is rubbing his back, just a little, and its so warm and gentle a gesture that his throat feels tight with emotion for just a moment.

He isn't usually the one to say these things first, though he's always glad to return them when Jūgo does, but he says it now, quiet and content.

"I love you."

"...I love you too." From the sound of Jūgo's voice, his words are coming from a throat choked up by feelings just as Sasuke's had been. "I always have. I always will."

Of all the promises that have been made to Sasuke in his life, this is one of the ones he can trust above all else in this world.

He wants to stay here forever, impractical as that sounds. A tiny smile tugs at his lips as Sasuke looks up into Jūgo's face. In a way, he is.

Though they shower, take care of household chores, and part so that Sasuke can go about his errands, like the meeting with Sai, while Jūgo makes dinner, it feels just a little as though he's carrying that moment with him for the rest of the day.

He's in a good mood, that evening, and something about it seems to spread to the others, because Jūgo can't stop smiling and even Suigetsu and Karin have put aside all their bickering to just enjoy dinner and their time as part of this little group. Even the cats are behaving themselves, and they seem happy enough to be doing so, too.

It's not until the next morning that anything happens to break through that happy mood.

Suigetsu pulls him aside, while the others are out.

"Hey, Sasuke, I gotta talk to you."

"...About what?" Sasuke asks cautiously.

"Well, uh... you know Naruto and Hinata know everything now. They, ah, kinda... invited me back. It's still kinda secret, but you knew about the other stuff and I just... wanted you to know it's okay now, nobody's hiding anything from anybody who actually needs to know." Suigetsu's expression is so strangely earnest, and Sasuke tries not to sigh audibly.

"They invited you back." If that means what Sasuke thinks it means, then Suigetsu is _definitely_ back to making questionable choices again, all Sasuke's hopes to the contrary notwithstanding.

"Yeah." Suigetsu grins at him, a little uncertainly. "I just didn't want you accidentally finding out or something and thinking there was sneaking-around going on again. They forgave each other, and they forgave me, and it's gonna be fine now, but I didn't wanna stress you out if you guessed at some of it without knowing that."

Sasuke holds back the automatic response, that he hadn't wanted to know at all, and thinks about this. He's not surprised that Naruto, especially, had been forgiving; the guy can apparently forgive things up to and including attempted murder. And Sasuke had found out about the original affair by accident, but there'd always be the chance he might find out again - and he _would_ have been annoyed, if he'd thought Suigetsu was back to his old tricks with Hinata or Naruto, given the consequences last time.

At least this way he knows that everyone involved is aware of it, and they're unlikely to spill their problems over onto him. He won't have to worry about that. That's something, he has to admit.

"All right," he says at last. "Just don't do anything too stupid."

Suigetsu laughs, grins brightly at him, and says, "Only slightly stupid. Got it." And then he's off to work, leaving Sasuke alone with the cats.

_Well,_ Sasuke thinks, _it could be worse._

He hopes he's not tempting fate by thinking that.


	24. Everyone's Invited

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto gets what he always wanted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A certain conversation in this chapter is brought to you courtesy of Scarlet Spring era canon, in which a sandwich board is sufficient concealment if one wants to hide from Naruto. :)

Naruto has the strangest look on his face when he comes home, this time, and Hinata notices it immediately. He looks as if he's pleased, and excited, and worried, and confused, all at once. She waits for him to get inside and brings him a cup of tea, and doesn't ask him any questions until he's had a chance to drink it and looks a little more relaxed.

At last, she says, "Naruto? Is something wrong?"

He blinks, and looks up from his tea. "Huh? No, nothing's wrong, but... Kakashi-sensei says it's time, he's got everything all lined up for me to take over as Hokage."

"Oh, Naruto, that's wonderful!" She hugs him, careful not to spill what remains of his tea, beaming at him. "Your dreams are finally coming true, I'm so happy."

He sets the cup down and wraps his arms around her, smiling back at her, and Hinata feels like she's overflowing with warmth, illuminated by his happiness. When he kisses her, she almost thinks she might melt with joy - her own,and his, which she can feel as clearly as if she could read his mind. She kisses him, running her fingers through his close-cropped hair, and shifts over into his lap just so she can be even closer to him.

Naruto's been dreaming of this for all his life, and he's made no secret of that; there's probably no-one in all the world who's met him and hasn't known about his plan to become Hokage. It's a little piece of why he's been such an inspiration to so many people, the way he's fought and struggled and worked toward his dream, never letting anybody tell him it was impossible. And now, finally, the day is coming where everyone will see him as the Hokage he's always been meant to be. Hinata is beyond delighted to get to be there beside him as he reaches that goal.

He's her brave, loving, infinitely forgiving husband, and seeing him live out his dreams makes Hinata the happiest woman alive.

Their kisses become more heated, something about their excitement transforming into an entirely different kind, and Hinata's pink and trying not to giggle as she leads Naruto by the hand to their bedroom. He's not generally the giggling kind, himself, but Naruto's nearly as pink as she is, and from the look in his eyes, he's trying to suppress laughter as well.

They close the door behind them, and fall onto the bed together. They don't have long before they'll have to go back to looking after the children, but that's all right. They can be quick. They've had practice.

They are gentle with each other, for all their haste, and by the time everything is over, they have so many more reasons why they just can't stop smiling for the rest of the evening.

 

* * *

 

When the announcement reaches Suigetsu, it's via Shino, to whom he's speaking at the time. Shino's busy asking Suigetsu about the kinds of insects in the Land of Water - Suigetsu isn't much help, in general, but he can at least nod at the sight of helpful illustrations and tell Shino whether or not he's seen bugs like that, and whether they'd been coastal or mountain-based for the most part. Shino's very patient with his limitations in the field of entomology; he seems to accept that even a flawed source is better than none at all.

It's into this conversation that Shino drops a mention of the transfer of power, though in his case the priority is the part where he's hoping it won't coincide with the most delicate part of one of his insect breeding projects.

"That's because," he says, "the insects will need my full attention then, and I can't give them that if I'm attending a ceremony on the same day."

Suigetsu nods. "Makes sense." It's all he can really think of to say just now, when he's thinking about the part where Naruto really is about to become the Hokage.

He doesn't even know how to feel about this. Oh, Naruto's been talking about it forever, by all accounts, and he's the war hero with the amazing set of powers, everybody's favourite guy, all that stuff, so it'd probably been inevitable, but... what happens now? A Hokage's supposed to be respectable, isn't he? Maybe Suigetsu can get away with sneaking around with Hinata, if they're very careful, but even that's looking unlikely, and as for Naruto himself... that's as good as done with already, he thinks.

The idea gives him a weird hollow feeling and he doesn't like it one bit.

Suigetsu reminds himself that given the cover story that's been concocted, he'll probably still get to spend time with Himawari, but... he cares about Himawari, he really does, and yet even knowing that doesn't feel anywhere near as comforting as it ought to.

He says his goodbyes to Shino, no longer in the mood for conversation, and trudges home, hands stuffed into his pockets.

Is he really going to have to fade out of their lives in every way except as a little bit of Himawari's background? It would probably mean a simpler life, that much is true, but he doesn't want that simple life. He wants the life he has now, where he gets to spend time with both of them, gets to enjoy the sweetness of Hinata's smile and even the stupid optimism that's always in Naruto's grin. They actually _like_ him, for whatever reason, and he doesn't want to lose that.

Once, the prospect of having more things taken away from him, after everything else he's lost, might have made him angry enough to want to destroy the lives he can no longer be part of, but not now. Now, he just wants to go to bed and stay there. He can't bring himself to wish harm on anybody involved, not when that would hurt Himawari, and even Boruto, who he's grown fond of in a way that makes him realise he must also have been a headache to raise. It would hurt Hinata, and Naruto, and... it wouldn't be right.

Even if things can't be the same, it's better if they get to be happy than not.

Suigetsu laughs wryly to himself, and wonders when he'd picked up this much inconvenient conscience.

When he does finally get home, the others are out, but he knows immediately that he's not alone in the house. The cats are responding to somebody's presence - somebody who is, apparently, lurking in Suigetsu's room.

His eyes narrow, and he tenses up.

Who's come here to wait for him?

 _Anbu again,_ he thinks, and makes sure he has a kunai on hand. While killing any member of Konoha's forces would cause him a significant amount of trouble later, if it's that or die, he'll strike first and sort out the consequences afterwards.

Suigetsu slips into his liquid form and trickles in under his own door, slowly and discreetly. He slides across the floor and under his bed, rising up from beneath it on its other side, kunai ready -

\- and looks squarely into Naruto's bright blue eyes.

"Hi," Naruto says, beaming at him.

"...Are you a clone?" Suigetsu asks, with a hint of suspicion.

"No, it's the real me, but I've got eleven clones out and about in the village right now, helping with all sorts of things."

"...Oh. You know if Karin comes home she'll sense you the minute she gets anywhere near the place, don't you?" Suigetsu's still wary, but he's dropped the kunai, and when Naruto reaches out to pull him onto the bed, he goes with it, uncomplaining. 

"Yeah, but I know where she is," Naruto says, cheerfully. "One of my clones just dropped a few things off for her and Sakura, they're working together on something."

"Well, okay." Suigetsu purses his lips for a moment, wondering why Naruto's even here, but the question that comes out is, "How come you can't do what she can?"

"I dunno." Naruto shrugs. "I can sense a lot of things, but I've gotta be in Sage Mode or better if I wanna do that. Maybe she's just lucky?"

"Hah. If there's one thing Karin's never been, it's lucky." An idea comes to Suigetsu, and he's honestly not sure whether it's born out of warped kindness or the simple desire to fuck with Karin a little bit. Maybe it's both. "Hey, she's kinda related to you, right? Only she doesn't really have any family, and your parents are gone as well... she's kinda difficult, but why doncha try making friends with her a bit? Not like there's all that many Uzumaki left, you guys oughta stick together."

He sees this idea filter into Naruto's thoughts, watching the play of expressions across his face that make it obvious that he's thinking about it, and then Naruto nods, beaming at him.

"Yeah, I oughta be her friend." Naruto says this so happily, and so decisively, that Suigetsu realises Karin's probably doomed now. She'll be exposed to Naruto's brand of relentless positivity, whether she likes it or not, and it will probably even work, after a while.

After all, it seems to be working on Suigetsu. He will never, ever admit that out loud, but in the privacy of his own head, he has to acknowledge that no matter how jaded and cynical he'd like to consider himself... he actually _likes_ being around Naruto, and how happy Naruto usually is. That's a terrible thing for a man to have to admit to himself, surely.

Suigetsu's reflections upon his own secret opinions are, however, interrupted by how cuddly Naruto's getting. "Hey, your clones aren't gonna start getting a bit too happy about this in the middle of the street somewhere, are they?" he teases, wrapping his arms around Naruto in return, and tilting his head away so Naruto can keep right on kissing his neck, which actually feels great.

"Nnnno, they'll be fine," Naruto mumbles, sounding distracted, and the 'fine' ends in a note that's almost a squeak as Suigetsu squeezes his ass.

"Oh, good. And hey, here we are, with a house to ourselves, and a bed that hasn't had any fun in it at all yet..." Suigetsu grins at him, and pulls him closer, getting a thigh between Naruto's legs so he can feel it when Naruto starts responding to all the kisses he's now getting.

"What, none?" Naruto actually looks surprised, and distracted from all the interesting things Suigetsu really wants to be doing right now. It's terribly inconsiderate of him to get side-tracked this way, especially when he's the one that'd got all that affection started this time.

"None _yet_ ," Suigetsu says firmly, and kisses Naruto roughly enough that all the questions stop, because sometimes the only way to keep Naruto from talking is to kill him until he's a moaning mess without any higher brain functions at all. He very carefully doesn't wonder if Naruto ever thinks the same thing about his own talking, though, because there are some questions Suigetsu just doesn't want answered.

Between kisses, they tug each other's clothes off, and Suigetsu spares just a moment to remember that it's his turn for laundry duty anyway, so it doesn't matter if he makes Naruto bleed just a bit. With somebody who loves being bitten this much, he figures, it pays to take that kind of thing into account.

With that in mind, he nips at Naruto's shoulder a little, and hears his breath catch.

"You want more of that?" Suigetsu teases, lifting his head to grin at him.

"F-fuck, yeah," Naruto whispers, his gaze fixed on Suigetsu's teeth, looking half-hypnotised by the sight of them.

"Oh good." He stops to retrieve his lube, and then, within moments, Suigetsu has Naruto pinned beneath him and is sinking his teeth into Naruto's shoulder while he works his fingers into Naruto's ass, feeling every twitch and quiver there as he digs his fangs in, deep enough to draw blood. As loud as Naruto's moans are, Suigetsu's glad they're here alone, because nobody could fail to hear that anywhere else in the house.

By the time he's actually fucking Naruto, slamming into him hard enough that he ought to be able to hear it, he's glad there's space between this house and all the ones around it, because Naruto's not getting any quieter, not until Suigetsu bites him again and turns all those noises into choked desperate whimpers, breathless and needy and ridiculously hot. It's easy, now, to make Naruto come, to feel the way his body shakes and know he's responsible for all of it, and that rush of power is the one last little push Suigetsu needs so that he can come as well.

Afterwards, still panting a little, he's tracing circles on Naruto's back with one finger and watching as the bitemarks begin to heal. An awful, perverse sense of curiosity grips him, so Suigetsu finds himself asking, "Hey, Naruto? That bijū you got in you... does he get pissed about healing you up after stuff like this?"

"What, Kurama? Nah, he doesn't have to do anything, it just happens. And he doesn't pay attention to any of this, y'know? Just goes to sleep, I think, 'cos human body stuff is kinda boring to him."

"...Oh. Good." An unexpected surge of relief wells up in Suigetsu at the knowledge that his time with Naruto is apparently not subject to the attention of a voyeuristic giant chakra monster. It's not as if he feels like he has all that much to be ashamed of - these days, at least - but bijū probably have all sorts of new criteria for judging, and he's not really sure how well he'd score on those. "So, what did you come over for? Like, before we got all distracted and shit?"

"Oh, right. They're making me Hokage, soon. I guess you must've heard?" Naruto asks, rolling over to face him.

"Yeah, I heard." Now, Suigetsu's wary, wondering if this is the point where he gets all that bad news he's been worrying about.

"Well... there's gonna be a ceremony and everything, and I wanted to make sure you were coming."

Suigetsu stares into those astoundingly blue, incredibly sincere eyes, speechless. When he finally finds something to say, all he can manage to do is ask, "You came over here... just to tell me I'm invited so I'd better be there?"

"Yeah - no, not like that, I mean, and everybody else is invited, but I do wanna make sure you know the 'everybody' includes you."

He remembers, then, that Naruto had spent his early years a pariah in his own village, frequently alone and shunned. Naruto's probably encountered a few situations where 'everybody's invited' had been followed up with 'no, not you.' And here he is, having worked out somehow that Suigetsu still doubts his welcome sometimes, trying to make sure Suigetsu doesn't have to feel like that as well.

"...Yeah," he says, at last. "Thanks. I'll be there." It's not really the way he usually does things, to curl up with Naruto and get cuddly once the sex is over, but right now he feels like that's the best possible thing he could be doing with his time. And Naruto's not pushing him away; if anything, he looks kind of pleased, for some reason, and with how tight his arms are wrapped around Suigetsu now, Suigetsu thinks he might actually have to hydrify if he wants to get out of here any time soon.

Not that he _does_ want to go, though. For one thing, this is his bedroom, he's not leaving it on account of somebody else.

 _Ah, shit, I sound like Karin used to,_ Suigetsu realises suddenly, a cold chill going down his spine at that particular thought. Denial doesn't suit him. He might as well admit, at least to himself, that he likes it here like this. He likes meaning more to Naruto than just some fuckbuddy. That's annoying, and probably inconvenient in light of Naruto's rapidly approaching future position, but it's true.

Wild horses couldn't drag the words from his lips, though. If developing feelings is inconvenient, sharing them would be about twenty times more inconvenient. That's not how this kind of thing works. So he'll keep his mouth shut, and hope all the warm and fuzzy feelings are just from feeling blissed out after really good sex.

They lie there a little longer, and then Naruto makes his apologies, gets dressed, and slips out. He can't stay, but Suigetsu hadn't expected him to. This is easier, and saves him the bit where the other members of Taka might find Naruto here.

Unfortunately, Naruto leaves the door open.

The first Suigetsu knows of this is an inquisitive little mew, and then Bikou's trotting into his room and jumping up onto the bed. She surveys her new domain with apparent satisfaction, and then promptly climbs onto Suigetsu's head to try to sleep on his face. It's lucky he doesn't actually need to breathe all the time, because right now all his perception is smothered under an all-encompassing furry darkness.

He tolerates it until she begins to knead at his face with her paws, which goes from amusing to bothersome to painful as the claws come out. The claws dig in a little too deeply -

\- and then Bikou flees, yowling, immensely betrayed by the part where one of her humans tends to turn into water with the addition of sharp objects.

Suigetsu snorts quietly, and gets up. He has laundry to do. And if Bikou is feeling affronted, he might actually get to do it without her getting underfoot.

He loves these cats dearly, he won't lie, but they can be incredible nuisances when they want to be.

 

* * *

 

The village is abuzz with activity now, preparing for the inauguration of a new Hokage. Hatake Kakashi, or so it's said, looks more and more relieved with every day that brings them closer to the end of his reign. Shikamaru is in a position to confirm those rumours, if he'd wanted to; he knows that Kakashi has been looking forward to this coming day since approximately two days after his own inauguration, if not even earlier than that.

There's so much to be done, but the staff of the Hokage's office are used to that. Everyone in the village has been made aware, now, and arrangements have been set in place to make sure as many people as possible can attend, excluding only those whose jobs mean that crucial village maintenance tasks would be neglected if they were to be there. The hospital, for example, will need the continued presence of at least some of its personnel, though others can relieve them later so that they can attend some of the celebrations, if not the actual moment of inauguration. That kind of planning and scheduling are what the Hokage's office staff are here for, right now; checking every essential task in the village to make sure that there will still be people to keep the village running, but that as many are spared as they can arrange.

It's almost as complicated as battle tactics and logistics, but with the distinct advantage that there won't be any casualties unless things really go horribly wrong, and there are failsafes for most ways this could go wrong. Compared to the war, this kind of thing is almost relaxing for that very reason, Shikamaru thinks.

Shinobi do whatever they must, but he'd still rather work on jobs where nobody's going to die.

And this coming ceremony will mark the moment that Naruto finally reaches his dreams, and that makes it all worthwhile too. Naruto will be the kind of leader Konoha needs, someone inspirational and eager and ready to protect the village from anything that might threaten it. His strength will be Konoha's greatest shield, and the sincerity in his heart will bridge the gaps that might otherwise see them needing to rely upon that shield.

It doesn't really show, not on the outside, but Shikamaru is feeling just a little excited about this.

 

* * *

 

Everybody gets new clothes for this event. They're not the most flattering garments that Karin's ever seen, but there's something about them she secretly likes anyway. It's the part where she gets to wear the same thing as all the rest of the village, and see and feel that everybody here, when they look at her, register her only as just another part of their village. She's not an outsider, a stranger, someone to mistrust. Today, she's one of them.

More and more people have been accepting her as time goes on, but there are always holdouts. Today, though, there aren't even any of those. She sees familiar faces around her, answers greetings from those who've come to know her, and turns her face up toward the spot where the transfer of power will take place.

...Oddly enough, she doesn't sense Naruto up there. If he doesn't hurry, he's going to be late.

Uzumaki Naruto, with his sunshine-warm chakra hiding the deep dark pools of the other chakra inside him, with his loud mouth and bright clothes and that head of yellow hair - so lucky, there, to have avoided the Uzumaki red hair that tells anyone with eyes what kind of rarity they're looking upon - is impossible to ignore. If he were here, she'd know about it.

Everyone knows this is what Naruto wants, so it's not like he could have run off to have avoided it.

The people are beginning to grow restless as the minutes tick by, and Karin wonders what could possibly be keeping the idiot. He should be here by now, but she can't sense him anywhere in the vicinity. What kind of person would miss their own inauguration?

There's a brief commotion, and then everyone is looking up again, as Naruto is introduced - but Karin still doesn't sense Naruto at all. She closes her eyes, just to be sure, and then opens them. The man standing up there, being introduced as Konoha's new Hokage, isn't Naruto at all, even if he looks enough like him to fool an observer who's relying upon the evidence of their eyes and ears.

Karin wonders why anyone would do this, but none of the others up there feel like they're doing anything nefarious, so she supposes that, whatever's delaying Naruto, they've decided to simply arrange a stand-in so that the ceremony can proceed on time, and to go and find him later. They might have thought that nobody would realise, but they can't lie to Karin's sensory abilities, and she knows their little secret now.

Maybe one day, she'll even get to find out why it had happened. For now, though, she decides that she might as well just enjoy the party.


	25. The Road Ahead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto is a very busy guy. Sasuke has his own concerns to take care of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, guys. I've been working on more chapters behind the scenes. To everybody who's been following and enjoying this... I'm so flattered and grateful. (To people who've read this much and hated it, please go do something more productive with your lives, wow.)

Naruto is Hokage now. Hinata's seen him go from ecstatic to overwhelmed in less than a week, and when he tells her about the job, most of what he talks about is paperwork - endless stacks of paperwork, where reading and signing one stack only clears away a space for the next stack to replace it, and every single meeting or arrangement generates its own paperwork.

She finds herself looking for new ideas for soothing drinks, because it seems like he's going to be getting some truly ferocious headaches if this keeps up.

Kakashi, they say, is sticking around for as little time as possible to guide his former student through this transition of power. He apparently intends to take a holiday just as soon as he can.

Hinata's proud of Naruto for reaching the position he's been dreaming of for all his life, but she worries, a little, about what the job will do to him now that he's discovered how much of it is conducted from behind a desk instead of out in the field.

It makes her glad of Suigetsu, though; he's been coming by, still, and when he does visit, he helps out around the house, so that when Naruto comes home from work, everything at home has already been done for him and he can spend time with the children, and with Hinata. She has a little more time as well, with Suigetsu's help, so it isn't as though she's busy taking care of everything and unable to enjoy Naruto's downtime with him.

And Suigetsu never asks for any reward, just chips in, laughing and joking and goofing around while he gets things done. It's making everything so much easier for all of them - especially Boruto, who has someone to show off to even when Naruto's not there.

Tonight, though, the children are already in bed, and Naruto is sitting on the couch, rubbing at his temples, with Suigetsu leaning over the back of the couch to massage the tension out of his shoulders. Hinata comes over to sit beside Naruto, cuddling up to him, and feels his arms wrap around her. He may be tired, but his affection is still there, she thinks, and smiles at him.

"It'll get better," Suigetsu says, breezily. "It has to, right? I mean, there's lots of stuff that's gotta be done on account of the changeover, but once all of that's cleared away, it's just the ordinary village stuff to take care of."

"Yeah, but Granny Tsunade and Kakashi-sensei both had stacks of paper, all the time, to deal with," Naruto mumbles.

"Hey, you use clones for everything else, why don't you get a bunch of clones reading all the paperwork?" Suigetsu asks, curiously. "Then you could sign off on a whole bunch of things all at once, get a lot more of it out of the way."

Naruto sits bolt upright, eyes going wide. "I could... hey, I _could_!" He's beaming, now, and without any hint of self-consciousness, pulls Suigetsu down into an evidently grateful kiss.

Hinata laughs, beaming at the both of them. "I hope that _does_ help," she says. "It would be nice if you could get this kind of stress out of the way sooner, rather than later."

"Yeah, man, I mean... you wanted to make a difference doing this, didn't you? Guess you've gotta get all the boring bits out of the way before you can do that. But you'll manage it." Suigetsu grins, and Hinata sees no sign of the usual teasing attitude he seems to offer to Naruto. He really believes in what Naruto can do, now, maybe almost as much as she does, she thinks.

Suigetsu slides onto the couch, on Naruto's other side, and Naruto shifts one arm to put around him, while Hinata reaches out to take hold of one of his hands. It's so warm like this, so comfortable, and even if Naruto's too tired to do much more than this, they can at least all trade kisses, and hold each other, and bask in the affection they're sharing.

After a while, Naruto whispers something in Suigetsu's ear, and Suigetsu nods.

"Let's go to bed?" Suigetsu suggests, looking at Hinata.

On the way up, he lets her in on their idea, and Hinata goes pink at the thought of it, but it's the sort of thing she definitely won't be saying no to.

Naruto is tired. Naruto has another full day of work tomorrow. Naruto needs his rest.

But Suigetsu doesn't.

They lock the door behind them and undress, with Suigetsu making quiet little jokes about how much training Naruto's going to have to do to keep his muscles while he's doing a desk job, pinching Naruto's backside to illustrate which muscles are his priority, and making Naruto stifle a funny squeaky little noise at the pinch. They're all laughing as they lie down, and Hinata shifts closer to Naruto so that she can kiss him, while Suigetsu runs his hands gently over her from behind her.

"I love you," she whispers to Naruto, her lips so close to his that they brush together as she speaks. "I want you to enjoy watching this."

"I will," Naruto says, just as quietly, his eyes as bright as ever, blatant yearning on his face.

Hinata closes her eyes for a moment as Suigetsu's fingers dip between her thighs, but she opens them again as Naruto begins to run his hands over her as well. His touch is gentler, more tender, filled with affection, while Suigetsu's touch is daring, eager, sending the first little ripples of pleasure through her nerves. She can feel Suigetsu's lips brushing against her shoulder, and she knows that Naruto's smile just now is for Suigetsu as well, but it feels good, it feels comforting, as though they've been united by these affections already.

Slowly, Suigetsu coaxes her body into more urgent need, and Hinata clings to Naruto, kisses him passionately, reaches down to stroke him in time with the touches upon her own body. Naruto's soft moan sends a thrill running through her, and Hinata's fingers quicken upon him.

"Now?" comes the soft, hoarse question in her ear, and Hinata nods, and then she's biting her lip as Suigetsu eases slowly into her from behind, his hands so very careful upon her body as he gets the both of them positioned just right. He waits until she's comfortable before he begins to move, and then all Hinata can do is hold onto Naruto, looking into his eyes, watching his reaction to everything he's seeing. 

There's longing there, and pleasure, as if he's the one making love to her on his own terms, instead of letting someone else do it for him, and when Hinata gathers her wits enough that she can go back to touching him, she feels so completely connected to Naruto that it doesn't even matter that it's not him doing all of this. They're together, regardless of the technicalities, and they are sharing this with each other, and the fact that it's shared with Suigetsu as well only enhances that closeness.

She can feel every little roll of Suigetsu's hips as he thrusts into her, and every little jolt of pleasure is one more thing she tries to give to her husband as well, with the touch of her hands and with her own open and unabashed enjoyment, knowing that just seeing that is enough to get Naruto worked up in all kinds of new and exciting ways. It's amazing, being here between them, feeling everything the both of them can offer her and knowing she's creating a connection between both of them as well - if the physical side of things weren't there, Hinata thinks she might almost fall apart just from how deeply their emotions intertwine. As it is, though, she can't hold out for long before she finds her peak, her cry silenced by Naruto's kiss before it can be heard.

It's not just in sound and sensation that she reads Suigetsu's climax, either; she sees it in Naruto's reaction as he watches, looking past her and drinking in the sight, so drawn in by it that only a few more strokes are needed to let him join them.

Lying between the two of them, held securely in their arms, Hinata smiles sleepily. The kisses she gives Naruto now are softer, sweeter, full of the lighter affections that well up in her after that kind of passion.

"You're both so..." And Naruto's turning his head away a little to yawn, before smiling at Hinata. "You're both so good, y'know?" he says dreamily, eyes half-closed.

"Settle down there and go to sleep," Suigetsu teases gently. "You're getting mushy."

"Mm, I'm allowed to be mushy... I'm the Hokage and I say so..." Apparently between one thought and the next, Naruto's asleep, still smiling to himself.

Hinata feels the mattress shift a little, and realises Suigetsu's on the verge of getting up. "Stay?" she says quietly, and obligingly, he settles back down behind her.

"Whatever you say, then," he says drowsily.

Even once the both of them are asleep, Hinata is still awake, lying there and thinking about how lucky she is. She has these two wonderful men in her life, and no matter what she might have thought she'd deserved for the things she's done, everything has turned out so much better than that. Sometimes, no matter what good things a person has done, bad things happen to them - but sometimes, even if one has done bad things, life turns out all right anyway.

All anyone can do, she thinks, is try to make the best of the life they've got, and try to be a better person if they've done things they shouldn't in the past. She's lucky, and she has people she cares about who also care for her, and so all there really is to do is take care of them, and be the kind of person she's wanted to be ever since Naruto had first shown her how; the kind of person who gets back up again after failures, who tries harder and who reaches out to others to forgive and understand them.

Naruto is so kind, so good, and Hinata's vowed to herself that she'll never take that for granted again.

And then there's Suigetsu, sleeping behind her, who is better than he thinks he is, no matter what trouble he's caused. He's sharp-edged and a little broken in places, but Hinata's seen his capacity for caring, too, and she's glad he lives here in the village, now. He's lost so much, but he can have a home here, and friends, and he deserves that, he really does, though she knows that he doubts that sometimes. She also knows that he cares about Naruto, as well, and that's a connection that can only be a good thing for him.

They've had to wander quite a ways down all the wrong paths before finding their way onto this one, but Hinata is glad they've made it here at last, and if they're careful, and considerate, they can be happy here.

 

* * *

 

"You're leaving?" Naruto's dismayed, that much is obvious. He gets up from behind his desk, coming around it in a few quick steps, so that he can stand face to face.

"Yes."

"But... _why_? I thought you were finished with that."

Sasuke sighs. "After what I found on my last journey, there's still too much we don't know." In the end, it all comes back to Kaguya. A being with power like hers isn't the kind of thing anyone can ignore, and they know too little, still, about her origins and her objectives. He still remembers her vividly, the way her Black Zetsu servant had manipulated everyone and allowed her to take over the body of Madara at the very end of the war. He remembers the battle where they'd sealed her away again, only the powers bestowed upon them by the Sage of the Six Paths standing between them and complete destruction.

If there's any other threat like Kaguya out there, the shinobi world will need as much forewarning as possible.

Naruto listens to his explanation - he doesn't _like_ it, but he listens. And when the Kage Summit is called, he's there at Sasuke's side while the matter is explained to the others.

Afterwards, Naruto looks very subdued, his normal ebullience gone. "Are you sure I shouldn't -" he begins, as Kurotsuchi, last of their guests, files out of the room.

"Yes. I'm sure. The only one I'm taking with me is Jūgo."

"Well... all right. Look after yourself, y'know?" He sounds so concerned, but he's not trying to keep Sasuke from his course, not this time. He knows how serious this is, just as much as Sasuke does.

Sasuke nods, and turns to go. Out of everyone else in the village, there are only two others who need to know that he's leaving, and he's going home to tell them right now.

He's left them behind before, but they've caught up to him before as well. Not this time, though. Where he's going, no-one without the Rinnegan will be able to follow; the only one who might have crossed those dimensions without it had been Obito, with his Kamui, and he's gone beyond all hope of recall now, destroyed by Kaguya in her own dimension. Now, only Sasuke can make this journey.

When he tells them, Suigetsu and Karin listen, more quietly than he'd been expecting. It's only afterwards that they start looking like they want to raise some objections.

"You could be gone practically forever," Suigetsu says, frowning.

"Not when I'm investigating something and will have to come back to deliver my reports," Sasuke points out.

"We should come with you," Karin insists.

Sasuke shakes his head. "I'll use up more chakra if I'm transporting all of us. It's better if I only take Jūgo."

"But... Sasuke, are you sure you have to do this?" Karin asks, her voice quieter now.

"Yes. It has to be done, and I'm the only one who can do it."

"It always seems to turn out that way, doesn't it?" Suigetsu muses. He reaches out to squeeze Sasuke's shoulder. "Good luck out there, man. Come back safe - you and Jūgo both."

"Yeah, you'd better," Karin adds, looking huffier, "or you'd be pretty stupid. So if you don't want to be stupid, you'd better come back alive."

It's a pretty weak excuse for an insult, and Sasuke feels the hint of a smile tug briefly at the corners of his mouth, knowing this is Karin's way of telling him she's worried about him and hopes he'll be all right. These are his friends, here, who care about what happens to him, even if they don't like to admit it directly, and they're part of the reason he has to protect this village, and this world; they've fought in his defense, and he's brought them here with the promise of a place where they can live safely, so he can't allow that safety to be destroyed by whatever it might be that had so frightened Kaguya until she'd felt that she'd needed an army of White Zetsu.

Right now, Karin and Suigetsu are making themselves busy with finding things for Sasuke to take on his journey, supplies and equipment to ensure that, no matter what he might encounter out there, he'll always have what he needs. When Jūgo gets back inside, after saying goodbye to a cluster of birds, they turn that same attention upon him. Once they're done, Sasuke's pretty sure if he couldn't seal things away, he might not actually be able to jump through his Rinnegan's portals, not with the weight of all those different things.

It's their way of saying goodbye, and good luck, and he accepts it in the spirit it's intended.

The road ahead will be long, and strange, and often dangerous, but as Sasuke sets out, the next morning, with Jūgo beside him, he feels his heart lifting within him at the prospect of the journey. He has a purpose, here, and he isn't alone; between those two things it seems that he can feel something that's just a little bit like optimism.

 

* * *

 

The house always feels different when Sasuke and Jūgo are gone, Suigetsu thinks. It's not that they're loud, most of the time, though their night-time activities tend toward the clearly audible, but nevertheless, when they're absent, every part of this place feels just a little emptier.

"Oh, stop moping and go outside!" Karin snaps suddenly, making Suigetsu start. He hadn't even realised she'd been in the same room until she'd spoken.

"Huh? What do you mean, _moping_?" he demands indignantly.

"I mean you sit there with that sad look on your face and you sigh so loud I can hear it from across the room, you bonehead."

"Bonehead? Oi, you sound like you're about ten when you start flinging insults, you know that, right?" And there's the other thing - when Sasuke's not around, they find it all too easy to slip back into old habits, especially now.

To Suigetsu's immense surprise, Karin stops, shuts her mouth, and glares, fists on her hips. She stays like that a while longer, still obviously incensed, before she turns away. "Ugh. Just go for a walk or something."

He gives her a long look, and realises suddenly that she's having the same problem he is. It's not exactly a welcome realisation, since he doesn't like it when they have much of anything in common, but it can't be helped now. They're both worrying about Sasuke, and they both miss him already. It isn't even as though Sasuke needs to say much of anything to be the centre of their team - he just has to be there, and they end up focusing on him anyway. Even with everything else that's a part of their lives, now, Sasuke is important, the kind of friend they can't help but miss when he's not there.

And there's Jūgo, too, quiet and unfailingly decent when in his right mind; his absence changes things as well. They've both been absent before, but now that Karin and Suigetsu both know that they're off looking for something so incredibly dangerous, there's a degree of worry for them that hadn't been there before. It's those worries, no doubt, that have stretched their tempers thinner and driven them to revert to their old animosity.

Knowing that, Suigetsu figures he'd better do the wiser thing, and retreats into his bedroom. This way, he and Karin aren't in the same room anymore, but he's also not doing what she's told him to, because that would be an unthinkable concession to make.

Flopping gracelessly onto his bed, Suigetsu tries to think about other things.

There's a shipment of new blades coming into Tenten's shop soon, and he'll be expected to help her test them; he can think about that to distract himself. He likes testing the weapons, after all, and he likes it when he gets to talk to Tenten about them, because she might be one of the few people in this village who share his interests in that regard. Oh, there are plenty of shinobi who like weapons, and who want something deadly to wield against their enemies, but less of them are truly drawn to the weapons for their own sake, admirers of all the different ways they can be constructed and all of the different techniques one might use when fighting with them.

Every single weapon has its own fighting style, its own little quirks of balance and heft that must be discovered to truly master it, and Tenten genuinely prizes all of them for that. It's one of the things that Suigetsu likes and respects most about her, and it makes it very easy for them to have long conversations about their mutual topic of interest. He's caught a few listeners looking as though their eyes are glazing over a bit when one of those conversations is happening, but that's all right; it isn't meant for people like that anyway.

There are some people, though, who listen even when it isn't the kind of thing they're really interested in - like Shino. Shino isn't the type to go into raptures over the perfect balance of a blade, but he does listen when Suigetsu is talking. Suigetsu listens to him when he talks about insects, so Shino evidently feels that it's polite to return the favour - and, since he's worked out which insects Suigetsu finds more disturbing, he tends to steer the flow of information toward the ones that don't bother Suigetsu. He's a good guy, even if he is full of bugs.

With his hands behind his head, Suigetsu lies there, looking up at the ceiling, thinking to himself about all the people he knows in Konoha. Eventually, though, his thoughts circle around to one specific family, as they usually do. He lets himself contemplate Himawari, now, and the surprise he'd had when hearing that she'd managed to activate her Byakugan at one point, in spite of having eyes that don't resemble the typical Hyūga kind. She must be very special, he thinks proudly, to use that dōjutsu when her eyes look completely different, and when her bloodline has been diluted by the addition of someone like Suigetsu's, when no part of his bloodline has ever been mixed with that of the Hyūga before. Clearly, it's all down to her mother's strength, in this case.

Himawari has shown no sign yet of any aptitude for the abilities of the Hōzuki, but she's still very young, and even Suigetsu hadn't really shown many signs at that age. Even when he had finally managed it, though, it had been under do-or-die circumstances of a sort that he devoutly hopes Himawari will never have to experience. He doesn't mind if she never develops abilities like his own, just as long as she stays safe and happy.

There's her brother, too, while Suigetsu is contemplating these things; Boruto does actually like him, apparently, and appreciates any time he's willing to spend playing, or watching him train. It's not that Suigetsu wants to replace Naruto in that area or anything but... if Boruto wants more attention than one father can give, Suigetsu has realised that he's happy to stand in as some kind of bonus adult in the boy's life. An extra father figure, an uncle, or whatever else Boruto might choose to consider him; he can manage that.

He's not the only one, either. Boruto has a remarkable number of adults deeply invested in his life, people who care what happens to him and want to be there for him. It's more than his father had had, and it's more than Suigetsu had been given as well - but that's an old pain, now only the vaguest ache in his heart. Boruto has no paternal grandparents, only a grandfather on the maternal side, one aunt, no cousins at all, when these things are reckoned by blood, but he also has the largest family anyone could possibly hope to have.

For Boruto, Suigetsu thinks, all those things Konoha shinobi like to say about the village being one big family are true, and they probably always will be. He's a luckier boy than he could ever understand, and in this village, he's likely to want for nothing in his life.

Boruto's parents... Suigetsu doesn't want to think about that right now. There are too many confusing little tangles of emotion there, that he doesn't really want to acknowledge. He doesn't want to think about what he wants, or how the things he wants are contradictory and impossible, and he doesn't want to dwell on the part where there's nobody he can talk to about it or ask for advice, because of all the secrets involved.

It's a happier, more honest mess than it had been, but it's still a mess, and Suigetsu doesn't know what he's going to do about that.


	26. Important Errands

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suigetsu makes a delivery; Sasuke makes preparations.

It's been two days since Naruto's come home, and Hinata's growing concerned for him. He's sleeping in his office, apparently, dozing off at his desk between reading reports, and living off cup ramen again. She's sent up fresh clothes, at least, and a bento or two, but he's been so busy that she hasn't even seen him when she's gone up there, thanks to some bad luck with the scheduling of his meetings and her managing to arrive while they're still happening. She's had to hand these things over to staff so that they can be given to him when he has a chance to take them.

His job is very important, of course, but so is he, and if he's up there working non-stop then he isn't looking after himself properly, and she would very much prefer that he be taking care of himself better than this.

She doesn't know how she'd be managing this without Suigetsu, who has continued to help out wherever she needs him to. He's even been keeping Boruto busy enough that he hopefully hasn't had too much free time to fret about his father's absence, which is a valuable contribution in and of itself; Hinata doesn't like how unhappy Boruto seems to get when Naruto doesn't come home at night. She doesn't feel happy about it herself, but she's a grown woman and can deal with her feelings in her own way; Boruto's only a child, unused to disappointment.

Another day is ending, and there's Suigetsu, carrying Boruto into the house. Boruto appears to be half-asleep already, having trained until he'd no more energy left at all. Getting him clean will be a little more difficult, but that's all right. Hinata takes over that task, while Suigetsu replaces her in the kitchen; at this point in the preparation of a meal, taking over isn't very complicated, and mainly requires a bit of stirring and some careful watching to make sure nothing starts to burn.

They eat in near-silence, with Boruto so sleepy, the only conversations the ones started by Himawari, who is earnestly telling them both about the time she'd spent in Ino's flower shop, and all the pretty flowers she'd seen customers buy there. A couple of the names and choices of flowers tell Hinata a little more than she'd expected about who in the village has romance on their minds, and who's probably made a mess of something and is feeling the need to bring home a bouquet by way of apology.

It's no wonder Ino's always current on the gossip, when she has access to this kind of insight into the emotional tides of the village, Hinata thinks.

Once the children are in bed, Suigetsu sits beside her on the couch, and slips his arms around her. With a quiet sigh, she leans her head on his shoulder and stares into nothing.

"Naruto's still up there," she says, sighing again. "There must be so many things to do today, if he still can't find time to come home."

"Yeah. I put aside a bit of dinner, and I'll take it up, if you want?" Suigetsu offers. "Saves you having to do it, you've been on your feet all day again."

"Thank you. Could you... make sure he's actually going to get some sleep?"

"Will do." Suigetsu grins, kisses her lightly, and gets up. "Back soonish," he says casually, and goes to retrieve Naruto's serving of dinner.

The house is even quieter once he's gone, and Hinata retrieves a book from a shelf. If she's going to be here by herself, she might as well take the chance to do some reading, after all. She has a collection of tales from Sunagakure that Gaara had sent to Naruto just last week, and she's quite enjoying them. Naruto hasn't had a chance to read the book yet himself, thanks to his duties, but she's certain he'll like them once he does finally find time for them. They're interesting tales, ones that tell Hinata so much more about Suna's past and the people living there, and that's the kind of thing they're supposed to be encouraging, these days.

So many of the past conflicts between villages had been worsened by a lack of understanding, and a tendency to see people as the other, not like the people in one's own village at all. The more everybody gets to know one another, the more misunderstandings can be avoided, and the harder it will be for anyone to paint foreign shinobi as dangerous unknown figures, with mysterious and sinister ways. If a foreign village isn't just 'those people we fought in the war, who killed my great-uncle' but rather 'my friend whose sister married my cousin and moved here, who just can't get the hang of eating squid neatly' then it becomes a place represented by actual human beings. Fighting side by side in the war had been a vital step in that increased understanding, but the camaraderie of battle can't last forever all on its own; it's only by making an effort to continue it that the world will remain at peace.

From what Hinata understands, this book is the first copy that's been sent to Konoha, but there will be more to come once the rest are printed and arrangements have been made to transport them. Naturally, Gaara had wanted Naruto to be the first to have one.

Hopefully, Naruto will have enough free time to take advantage of this advanced copy soon.

 

* * *

 

Suigetsu makes his way up to the Hokage's office at a stroll, looking nonchalant. At this hour of the evening, most people are inside with their families, so the streets are fairly quiet. It does mean that Suigetsu stands out a little, but fortunately people are sufficiently used to him now that he attracts only passing glances and the occasional nod of greeting, which he obligingly returns.

Naruto really ought to be one of those people who are at home with their families, he thinks. Sure, the guy is busy and all, but there has to be some way for him to draw a line in the sand and declare that outside of an emergency, he has a set number of office hours in a day, and that his home life can and will happen beyond those hours. He has a loving family waiting for him at home, and he ought to get the chance to spend time with them. Not everybody is lucky enough to have so much waiting for them, so to see someone who does have it still somehow unable to spend time with those who love him is like seeing a man create and serve up a hundred feasts while starving to death himself, never tasting any scrap of what he's creating.

There are doubtless people who'd wax poetic about the glory of sacrifice and the nobility of a man giving up everything for others, but Suigetsu isn't one of them, and he just thinks it foolish for someone who has all these people around who could help him to end up taking it all on himself. Konoha's so big on its village being a family, isn't it? Families ought to share the chores around, not leave them all to just one person.

Suigetsu doesn't have all that much experience with family himself, but he does know that much. Maybe he ought to remind Naruto of it, before he works himself into an early grave. He suspects that Hinata is reluctant to say anything when it comes to Naruto's long-held dream, but if Suigetsu is good at nothing else, he's good at pointing things out to people without dancing around the subject to spare their feelings.

Of course, the issue right now is how to get in to see Naruto in the first place; it's not like Suigetsu has an appointment or anything, and he's not actually a shinobi of Konoha, so people aren't likely to be as eager to let him in. Besides, then he'd have to explain why he's bringing Naruto's dinner instead of Hinata, and he doesn't really feel like doing that.

With the direct approach ruled out, there's always sneaking in. Of course, he'll be in a lot more trouble that way if he's caught, but he doesn't intend to get caught, so that shouldn't be an issue. Suigetsu draws close enough to the building to make it easy for himself, slips in a window near the bottom that someone has carelessly left open, and transforms into water. The food will be fine; Suigetsu has brought things much more complex than a bit of dinner through his transformation and formed them up again in the same condition they'd been in beforehand. He's good at it, better than many of his kin had been.

He flows along a corridor, and inches past open doorways with care; now and then he hears voices or footsteps, but nobody notices him. The Hokage's office is high enough up in the building that he wishes he could just walk the rest of the way, but there's no sense in getting caught now, not when he's been doing so well thus far. 

At last, though, he reaches it, and trickles in under the door. The place is piled high with stacks of paperwork, and Naruto is sitting at his desk, staring fixedly at something on his desk for so long that Suigetsu wonders if he's actually reading it, or if his brain has simply switched off along the way out of sheer exhaustion.

Checking for anyone else in the vicinity, Suigetsu forms up again, eyeing Naruto. "Wow, you look awful."

Naruto actually jumps, wide-eyed, looking around wildly and then staring at Suigetsu. "What're you doing here? How did you even get in?"

"I'm very sneaky," Suigetsu answers cheerfully, "and I've brought you dinner, because Hinata was worried you weren't eating right."

A guilty little flush stains Naruto's cheeks, and he glances sideways at a couple of empty ramen cups, as if to confirm that suspicion.

"Anyway, here it is, so you might as well get a decent meal, right?" Suigetsu deposits the food on the desk, in between two stacks of papers, and leans against a wall, watching as Naruto eats all of it. At least now he'll be able to tell Hinata that Naruto's eaten something substantial, he thinks.

"...Thanks," Naruto says eventually, once he's done. "You shouldn't be in here, though."

Suigetsu waves a hand carelessly. "Aww, c'mon, you're the Hokage, if anybody objects you can just tell them you sent for me, can't you?" He sits on the edge of the desk now. "Anyway, you've been stuck in here way too long. You looked half-asleep when I came in, so I kinda doubt you were in any state to read and understand anything. You're not actually doing any work, just sitting in here surrounded by work you've gotta do later and feeling like shit, right?"

"I had a lot to do," Naruto protests weakly.

"Yeah, I know, but you're not doing it now. So if you're not working, you might as well be at home, right?" Seeing Naruto's hesitation, Suigetsu presses his advantage. "You can go home, get a good night's sleep in an actual bed, and be back here in the morning feeling alert enough to tackle whatever it is you've gotta do." 

"Well, I guess..." Naruto sighs, and stands up. He nearly falls over, and only some hasty support from Suigetsu keeps him upright. Clearly, he's been sitting in that one spot for far too long. 

"Whoa, take it easy," Suigetsu says, stifling a laugh. "Am I gonna have to carry you out of here, or what?"

"I'll be fine, I just need a minute," Naruto says, wincing and trying to rub life back into his legs.

"Okay, okay, but I hope this tells you something."

"Give it a rest already," Naruto complains, putting his weight onto first one leg and then the other to stretch them. "Quit fussing."

"I'm not fussing, I'm just pointing stuff out," Suigetsu counters, looking innocent. "That's what I do, or hadn't you noticed? No? See, that's why you need me pointing stuff out, if you can't even notice that much." He ducks, laughing quietly, as Naruto lobs a scrunched-up ball of paper at his head. "Missed me by a mile, man," he teases.

"I'll put the next one through your face."

"Oh no, you can't do that, think of all the paper you'd be wasting." Suigetsu grins. "That's your village's resources being used up on that, mister Hokage." His face dissolves in a splash of water, and then forms up again, as Naruto makes good on that threat.

" _That_ ," Naruto informs him triumphantly, "was worth it, so it's not a waste at all."

"Pfft. Let's get you home, okay?"

"How are you getting out of here?" Naruto asks.

"Oh, the easy way," Suigetsu informs him breezily. "I'll just look like somebody else. People watch who's coming into this place a whole lot closer than they watch who's coming out."

"They do, huh?" Naruto rubs at his chin. "Guess we're gonna have to work on that, if we're going to improve the security around here." He grins at Suigetsu suddenly, his expression bright and sunny and breathtaking in the clarity of its sheer good humour. "You might find it harder to get in and out if you do this again, next time."

"Then I'd find some other way," Suigetsu says, with a shrug and a grin. "I've been getting in and out of interesting places since I was little."

"Maybe I should make you my security adviser," Naruto teases - at least, Suigetsu _hopes_ he's teasing.

"Hah, I'm not even registered as a ninja here, all your other staff would have a heart attack." With that, Suigetsu takes on the appearance of one of the clerks who works here, waves to Naruto, and strolls on out of his office.

Nobody challenges him; in these days of peace, it's not like security's very tight anyway, and Suigetsu is moving at the steady, confident pace of someone who has every right to be here, and who is going about a perfectly ordinary kind of errand. It's certainly a far cry from the debacle in the Land of Iron, in which the samurai had been on high alert after the attack and had known there'd been people in their home to look for. Here, nobody even knows that there's someone they ought to be looking out for, so they're not particularly wary.

Suigetsu does, however, change directions at a brisk pace when he hears Shikamaru's voice drawing nearer; if there's one person who might notice something's off and take action, it's that guy. Suigetsu doesn't intend to give him the chance to do so.

Once he's out of the building, Suigetsu keeps going, far enough that anyone watching from inside or in the general area will have given up, steps into a nice private spot between buildings, and reverts back to his own appearance. From there, it's just a matter of waiting until he finally sees Naruto making his way home, because up until that moment, there'd always been the possibility that Naruto might have fallen asleep in his office again, or got caught up in some extra bit of business that would keep him from leaving.

He trails after Naruto until they get to the Uzumaki residence, just to make sure he'll actually get there without falling over or being accosted in his exhausted state, and watches as Naruto goes inside. He can leave, now; Hinata will take care of Naruto from here, now that Suigetsu has made his contribution.

To his surprise, though, Naruto stops in the doorway, turns back, and looks in his direction. "I know you're there," he says. "C'mon, come inside?"

Given that kind of invitation, Suigetsu figures he might as well go along with it, and steps out of the shadows between buildings. "Okay, okay, I'm coming..."

Naruto doesn't close the door until they're both inside.

Hinata takes over from here, making sure Naruto stays upright long enough to shower and get to bed, but when she's done, she returns to Suigetsu, smiling. "Thank you," she says, hugging him. "Come to bed?"

Apparently they both want him there, even though Naruto is definitely too tired tonight for any intimate shenanigans. He hadn't been expecting that, but he's not going to turn it down now that it's been offered. Suigetsu smiles a little, and nods. "Yeah, we could all do with the rest."

In Naruto and Hinata's bedroom, he settles onto the bed behind Naruto, who's already half-asleep, but who mumbles something happy as Suigetsu's arm curls around his waist. Naruto has Hinata in his arms, too, and she lifts her head just long enough to smile at Suigetsu again before cuddling up to Naruto. They're all so warm here, and Suigetsu yawns, fleetingly glad that Naruto has shorter hair now, because otherwise far too much of it might have wound up in Suigetsu's mouth, with his face so close to the back of Naruto's head.

Unlike both Naruto and Hinata, Suigetsu isn't inclined to cut his hair any shorter, and it hangs a little past his shoulders, as it has done for a while now. It all comes down to effort, really; in order to get a haircut he actually has to concentrate on keeping his hair solid while sharp objects are being used on it, and that's the kind of thing he doesn't tend to do all that often. He doesn't let it get down to his waist or anything like that, of course, but keeping his hair especially short just isn't worth the maintenance.

At least it's easy to keep clean when he's basically made of water, unlike Naruto, whose hair smells faintly of shampoo now, but who still smells even more faintly of instant ramen beneath that and the general smell of soap. Suigetsu wouldn't have wanted to get this close to him before his shower, that's for sure; the smell would probably have been pretty noxious. A side benefit of getting Naruto to head home and get clean, he thinks, is that there are way more opportunities to get close to him without things getting kind of gross.

Maybe next time he can even coax Naruto into coming home before he gets so tired that he hasn't the energy to play around a bit? It doesn't have to be with both of them, Suigetsu can wait his turn if he and Hinata are too much for Naruto when combined, but it'll be better for all of them if they get the chance to unwind soon, and that's the best way Suigetsu can think of to do that.

He dozes off, his mind still buzzing with plans. Next time, things will be more fun.

 

* * *

 

This place is beautiful, in a remote and forbidding kind of way, really. The sky's a deep violet, the water's a deep sapphire blue, and the rocky outcrops poking up from it are a stark black that stand out, dramatic and barren as they reach toward the sky.

There are stars, but no moon.

Wherever they are, it's had to do without one.

Of course, that also means that it presumably has never had an ancient rabbit goddess sealed into something in its skies, so it probably isn't missing out on anything too great.

Jūgo leaps down from the very top of the spire to land beside Sasuke, looking serious. "The next spire looks like it's an hour's walk away, across the water. I could see a much bigger one in the distance beyond that."

That's probably what they're looking for, then. Sasuke could get them there faster, but he doesn't know what might be lurking around here, and he'd rather not alert anything that he's coming until he's had a chance to see for himself what's ahead. If that place is occupied, the inhabitants might flee, or prepare to fight, or destroy the evidence he's been tracking across all these dimensions. It's better to be subtle, for now.

He can always get exceedingly unsubtle later, if anyone here tries to take him on.

Sasuke nods, and sits down. The ground is flat, here, at the base of the spire. Oddly, there's no sand, and there are no stray pebbles or bits of broken stone anywhere, for all they're on a piece of rock surrounded by water. "We'll rest here until my Rinnegan is at full power again," he says. "I want to be ready for anything."

Jūgo sits down beside him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. "All right," he says, agreeing readily. He usually does, especially when Sasuke's taking steps to look after himself. Jūgo always likes that, Sasuke knows.

Sasuke sighs, and leans into his hold, feeling the warmth of Jūgo's body against his own, solid and reassuring. Even with his Rinnegan not at full strength, he still has access to more sensory information than most people, and he knows there's nothing in their vicinity that could be a threat to them, so... for now, he can relax. He can appreciate how good it feels to be held by Jūgo, the way he knows that even out here, far from the world they both know, they don't have to be alone. He turns his head a little, face tilted up, and Jūgo kisses him obligingly.

If they're going to spend their time here, in the middle of nowhere, Sasuke sees no reason at all why they shouldn't be affectionate with each other while they do. It's not as if anybody's going to interrupt them, after all, and Sasuke's chakra will replenish itself just the same whether he's standing atop the spire staring grimly into the distance or trading kisses with the man he loves, so he might as well choose the more enjoyable option there.

One of Jūgo's hands is sliding slowly up and down his back, warm even through the layers of clothes, and Sasuke's eyes slide half-closed in contentment.

Sure, he's tracing signs of a powerful being from before the dawn of shinobi history, and there's peril and unknown secrets waiting out there, but he's happy. He's doing something nobody else could do, he's protecting the ones he's left behind, and he has Jūgo - how could he be anything but happy, after all?

This is his life now, the new life he's made, and it's a good one.


	27. Remedies For Pain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suigetsu finds himself in an emotional tangle while others work on important things.

The security around the Hokage's office is a little tighter today.

Suigetsu makes a note of this fact, but he's in the mood to pay a visit anyway, and he's not going to let a few guys in masks deter him. If anything, that just makes it a challenge, and he's going to win.

He's had to work all morning, but now he's free to get up to mischief, so that's exactly what he's going to do.

Anyway, it's for Naruto's own good, he tells himself virtuously, if he brings Naruto a nice lunch while he's working. He has that lunch ready to go, and now he's sitting on a rooftop, reading a magazine and watching Anbu members confer with each other in a spot close enough to see, but far enough away that it doesn't actually look like he chose this vantage point to observe them. He's not making any effort to hide that he's here, and sometimes that can be even better than trying to sneak up on people; shinobi notice stealthy movements and pay attention to them, but once they've categorised a person they can see easily, their attention tends to turn toward anything else that might need watching.

He's hiding in plain sight here, trusting in the judgement of others to sweep past him, notice he's reading something dirty enough that it's reasonable for him not to want to flip through it at street level, and dismiss him from their list of potential concerns.

The magazine's actually pretty hot, too, though Suigetsu kind of doubts that any of the women in it are genuinely the kunoichi they're advertised as being. There's not a scar on any of them, and the pictures have given him ample opportunities to check.

There, now - the Anbu members are moving off to take up their new positions. They'll probably be quite well concealed once they're actually in place, but Suigetsu's watching them get there, so he knows exactly where they'll be, even once they've hidden themselves. Behind the cover of the magazine, his eyes narrow as he calculates their fields of vision. There have to be some blind spots in there, and he just has to find them.

Ah, there's his chance - the easiest one he can find.

Stuffing the magazine inside his shirt, Suigetsu jumps down off the roof to stroll along with a nonchalance that can easily be chalked up to 'no, I swear I wasn't just ogling raunchy photos up there' instead of being up to anything.

He drops out of sight along the way, and makes his move.

The young man with the trolley always goes to the Hokage's office around now, and he likes to grab a bite to eat first. When he does finish his snack and resumes pushing the trolley toward the big building, his bucket is a little more full than it had been, but he doesn't notice. Besides, once he's got everything set up to clean the windows, it's back to normal anyway.

Now, finally, this is the time for stealth, and Suigetsu employs every scrap of it he can muster. There's a brief close call when the guy with the senbon in his mouth whose name he's forgotten drops off a stack of forms into the storage room Suigetsu's hiding in, but the guy has a friend waiting outside the room and he doesn't linger.

It's a rush of triumph when Suigetsu finally makes it into the Hokage's office and finds Naruto in there alone, reading through some papers with a glum expression.

"Oi, cheer up, mopey, I brought you lunch," he announces, reverting to solid form.

The startled look on Naruto's face is absolutely priceless, especially when he drops his papers and nearly falls out of his chair. Then, he's on his feet, looking out the window, craning his head to look past Suigetsu to the door, clearly worried.

"You're going to get yourself in trouble, coming here when it's daylight outside."

Suigetsu grins at him. "Nobody caught me, and sometimes it's even easier to be sneaky during the day, 'cos people aren't expecting that." He saunters over to put the box he's carrying on the only clear bit of desk he can find. "And since I'm here, you might as well eat."

Naruto looks like he wants to argue, but his stomach growls audibly, settling that debate conclusively. He goes a bit red, and opens the box.

While Naruto's eating, Suigetsu leans against a wall, just beside a stack of paper he figures he can easily hide behind if anybody comes in. Nobody does come, though, and so he can just stay here, watching Naruto, seeing his entire demeanour change as he begins to fill his stomach. He must have been so hungry, maybe without realising it, maybe while forcing himself to ignore it, and now he's actually getting some decent food into him.

When he's finally finished eating, Naruto looks up, the tension in his shoulders diminishing. "...Thanks."

"No problem." Suigetsu grins again.

"...Y'know, we could fix things so you could come in here without getting in trouble," Naruto says, after a long pause in which it'd seemed he'd been thinking hard about something. "All you'd have to do would be get registered as a Konoha shinobi."

He doesn't look like he's joking, either.

Suigetsu almost brushes this aside with a joke and a few dismissive comments, but he sees how serious Naruto is about this, and pauses, and in that pause, he actually has to think about the idea.

_I'm a shinobi of Kirigakure._

Well, he _had_ been. He isn't anymore, but somehow accepting a place in some other village's registered shinobi ranks still feels like a betrayal, and an acknowledgement of his lost position, as if he'd finally have given up on it and accepted that he'll never get back anything that he's lost. It feels like a surrender.

_Then you'd be my boss._

He doesn't want Naruto in charge of him - he doesn't want _anyone_ in charge of him. He'd followed Sasuke, but that had been his choice, and he could have left anytime he'd wanted to. After Otogakure, the idea of letting someone hold this much power over him again is terrifying - he'd lost everything there, all his power, all his hope, all his freedom to chose anything at all. And now, if he becomes a village shinobi again, someone else will have absolute power over him all over again. He won't be able to get away, not even if he wants to, not even if he needs to.

(Later it might occur to him that these two objections contradict each other, but his mind is full of panic right now, and he can't think of anything except the bars of a cage settling in around him to keep him from anything he might choose to do.)

_What would Sasuke think?_

Sasuke's technically part of the village again, but just look at how quick he's been to leave it on whatever missions come to hand. Would he respect Suigetsu less for voluntarily stepping into the fetters of village fealty that Sasuke's spent so long trying to shake off?

It's too much. Everything is too much, and Suigetsu wants to bolt, and only the dimly-remembered and iron-hard rules of his Academy sensei remind him that this is technically an infiltration that's got him into this room, and he can't allow himself to break from cover by running out openly. _Get in quietly, get out quietly. A stealth failure on exiting is just as bad as one while entering._

He twists in place, hands fidgeting with each other, eyes wide but seeing nothing, muscles tensing and twisting, breath rasping in his throat -

\- and then Naruto is there, with his arms around him, and for one awful moment Suigetsu comes _this close_ to ripping his throat out, before he slumps against Naruto, shivering convulsively.

"Hey, I'm sorry, you don't even hafta think about it, it's okay, nobody's gonna make you do anything," Naruto says in his ear, rubbing his back, and Suigetsu clings to him, closing his eyes and burying his face in Naruto's shoulder. "Just breathe, okay?"

"I'm made of water, I don't have to breathe," Suigetsu mumbles, his voice muffled, not lifting his head.

"Right now you'd probably better," Naruto advises. He's still rubbing Suigetsu's back, and Suigetsu feels that blind panic slowly beginning to recede.

Propping his chin on Naruto's shoulder, Suigetsu sighs, and does his best to concentrate on breathing, slowly, in and out, not letting himself think of anything but the slow count of seconds as the air moves through his lungs. If he just keeps counting, just keeps breathing, he can shut out everything else, and let that awful feeling fade away.

By the time he feels a little more like himself again, he realises they're both sitting down, behind the shelter of that stack of paper, and Naruto is still holding onto him. He hadn't expected that - and he wouldn't have expected it to help, but it does. He actually feels like things might turn out all right after all, with Naruto holding him like this.

Optimism is a weird kind of break in his normal routines, but he'll go with it, since it feels a hell of a lot better than the alternative right now.

Naruto's always so positive about things, and Suigetsu had watched him go around, all sunshine and cheer, with a sort of cynical and indulgent view of the whole thing, as if to say _Oh, there he goes again, but that's Naruto for you. Obviously reasonable people don't act like that, who'd go around smiling all the time and expecting the world to do the right thing just because you're loud about wanting it to._

He's not being loud right now, though. He's not shouting or grinning at everything, just... being here, quietly, with his arms around Suigetsu, just as if that's a natural thing to do, just as if Suigetsu _deserves_ that kind of comfort. Suigetsu doesn't know why Naruto's being so understanding, but he can't bring himself to question it, not when he needs this so badly right now.

Eventually, Suigetsu sits up a bit, looking away from Naruto, who loosens his hold. "...Thanks," he mutters. "I'm okay now."

He's kind of bracing himself for Naruto to start up again about the same subject, but... he doesn't. When Suigetsu risks a glance back over at him, Naruto just smiles at him, warm and guileless and friendly.

"Good. If you wanna go, I'll find a way for you to get out without anybody seeing you?" Naruto offers, and Suigetsu blinks, startled.

"You'll cover for me if I want out?"

"Yeah, sure. I kinda figured you might want some fresh air or something, y'know?"

"...Thanks, but I'll be fine." The tension in Suigetsu's body is almost entirely gone, now. He's actually safe here, he realises, which isn't something he'd really considered up until right now. It had been a risk, a challenge, a way to surprise Naruto a bit, and he'd been aware the whole time that if somebody were to catch him here, things would get complicated in pretty short order.

But Naruto actually _cares_ about whether or not he's doing all right, is genuinely willing to find a way out for him if he needs it, and Suigetsu feels as if he needs to take a few extra moments just to absorb that fact. Here he is, having to come face to face with things he's avoided thinking about, because Naruto cares, and... he _likes_ knowing that. He likes knowing that Naruto cares about him.

And he knows why, too, which is the part he'd been dodging in his head.

 _Guess I'm no better than anybody else in this ridiculous village,_ he thinks, resignedly, but he realises he's hiding being cynicism all over again there. There are reasons why Naruto matters to everybody here -

\- and there are reasons why Naruto matters to him, too.

Suigetsu shifts in place, pushing a few stray bits of hair away from his face, and glances over at Naruto again. "I think... I've got stuff to think about. Might go after all," he says, eventually.

"Okay." Naruto grins, a little sheepishly. "Guess you can tell Hinata I actually had lunch, can't you? And I'll be going home, tonight, unless there's an emergency."

"Yeah, I'll tell her." Suigetsu leans in, gives Naruto a sudden rough hug, and gets up. "Seeya later, then." He even manages a jaunty, confident little wave and grin, before he goes to the door.

"Hey, wait," Naruto says, and Suigetsu halts, one hand on the door. "I've got an easy way for you to leave." He looks very pleased with himself as he opens a window. "I'm gonna send some clones out anyway to help out around the village, you can just disguise yourself as one of those and leave with them."

Suigetsu lifts his brows a little, actually impressed. "That's... a smart plan," he says, after a pause to think it over. "Thanks, guess we're doing this your way then."

Assumptions about Naruto can only go so far, Suigetsu thinks, leaping out a window while transformed into one of about three dozen identical blond figures; sooner or later, it always seems to turn out that you're underestimating him.

 

* * *

 

The stone is black, and more than black; it seems to swallow up the light so profoundly that even with his enhanced vision, Sasuke has to be quite close to it before he sees the images carved into the side of what might once have been a temple, or might not; even the remnants of the building are alien to him, showing few points of similarity to the kinds of architecture he knows.

"Was this place always up here, even before the waters?" Jūgo asks in a whisper. "You'd have to fly to reach it, wouldn't you?"

Sasuke doesn't respond just yet; he's looking at the carvings. Are those spikes the same pieces of stone that claw their way up from the waters across the surface of this world, or does their design suggest a great tree, with one long stalk reaching for the sky? And the figure in the foreground... is that some manner of headdress, or do those lines suggest horns?

Jūgo's right, though; if this place had ever had a lower sea level, then this spire could only have been reached by those who could transport themselves in ways not available to any ordinary human being. Sasuke reaches out, as if to touch that dim figure, but his hand halts inches from the stone. At this distance, he can feel the cold radiating out from it, and he can guess that touching it would be like setting his fingers upon the very heart of winter.

Instead, he walks along further, seeking more clues.

"Have you found anything?" Jūgo asks, when Sasuke stops again.

"No," Sasuke says, slowly, "but I think I know, now, where to look."

His voice does not echo, here; perhaps the stonework swallows sound and light alike.

The journey may grow more perilous from this point on, but Sasuke doesn't mind that; even active danger might be better than the creeping unease that filters into him the longer they stay here.

They depart swiftly, and leave no trace behind, and the black stone wall lies untouched in the darkness again.

 

* * *

 

Hinata is busy today, with Himawari, whose Byakugan has not returned since the day she'd rendered Naruto senseless, unable to attend his own inauguration. Even if Himawari's Byakugan is currently inactive, it will serve her well to learn the first steps of a Gentle Fist fighter, the ones every Hyūga learns as a small child. And Himawari is eager to learn new things, clearly delighted to have the chance to know something special.

Her little face is set in the most adorable tiny scowl of intense concentration, and every strike she makes is accompanied by enthusiastic "hah!" and "yah!" cries.

The parts of this practice that Hinata enjoys the most are the ones where she can stop demonstrating, and simply watch as her daughter tries out all of these moves. Himawari isn't afraid, or even worried; there's no pressure on her at all. If she doesn't want to do this, she can stop. If she never wants to be a shinobi, she doesn't have to become one. Himawari can be whoever and whatever she wants to be, and Hinata can know that she'll be the one standing behind her daughter to support her, no matter what happens.

Hinata can live a life in which she knows she's giving her daughter a happier childhood than her own, and that's something to celebrate, something to be proud of.

They drink fruit juice together once their practice is over, and head home to get cleaned up.

Suigetsu's waiting for them there, which Hinata hadn't expected, though she doesn't realise until she's actually inside and can smell the aromas coming from the kitchen.

"Hey," he calls, waving to them. "I'm making lunch, okay?"

"All right - Himawari, go wash, please."

"Okaaaaay!" Himawari skips off, energetic despite the time spent in training, and Hinata takes the chance to sit down and relax for a moment or two.

"Thank you," she says, looking toward the kitchen with a smile.

"No problem," Suigetsu says casually. "Figured you could use a break. Already dropped something off for Naruto, too - and he says he's gonna try to be home for dinner tonight."

"Will you join us?" Hinata asks, sitting bolt upright and beaming, both relieved at the bit where Naruto's been fed and excited at the chance to have a family dinner with everyone there, and to know Naruto will be getting the sleep he needs tonight.

"Well, uh... are you sure? I mean, I kinda figured it'd just be the four of you, like... a proper family dinner?" Suigetsu says, looking uncertain.

"The _five_ of us will have a family dinner, if you're there," she corrects him.

"...Okay." Suigetsu's smile is only the briefest flash of those sharp teeth, but it's there, so Hinata knows he'll keep his word.

By the time he's finished making lunch, Himawari is clean, and Hinata has also had a chance to have a quick shower. She lets Himawari dominate the conversation, since Himawari wants to tell Suigetsu all about her morning, and Suigetsu listens attentively, making comments in all the right places.

He has to leave, after that, but he pauses in the genkan while nobody but Hinata's looking, smiles at her, and pulls her into a kiss so prolonged, and so thorough, that Hinata feels as if she's going to spend the whole afternoon wearing the dreamy little smile she knows she has right now, the one she just can't seem to stop.

 

* * *

 

Karin feels Ino's presence well before sight or sound could have warned her that she's approaching. That chakra feels purposeful, but friendly, so by the time Ino's knocking on the door, Karin's already there to open it. She sees the basket of plants Ino's carrying, and realises why she's come.

"Are those the herbs I said I was going to need if we're going to get any further?" she asks, and Ino nods.

"They take a little longer to grow than we thought, apparently. You really think they're going to help?"

Karin comes very close to rolling her eyes, but she can tell that Ino's asking out of some kind of personal concern, so she keeps her tone mostly civil as she says, "I wouldn't have asked for them otherwise."

"Well, all right. Did you want Sakura to come around later to help?"

"Maybe tomorrow. I want to take care of these myself, first." Karin takes the basket, but Ino doesn't look like she wants to leave, and Karin remembers that she's involved in the children's clinic of Konoha. She has reason enough to be invested in this research on the strength of that, but from the time they've spent around each other, Karin knows that the Akimichi, Nara and Yamanaka clans are so closely linked, and their Ino-Shika-Cho teams closer still, that Ino can't possibly have missed what's been happening with Nara Yoshino. "Did you want to help me clean and cut them?" she asks, and at Ino's nod, lets her in.

Ino has enough experience with plants, and some medical training to boot, that she can easily keep up with Karin while they're processing the herbs, and she always has interesting gossip to share.

Somewhere beneath her light-hearted recounting of the things she'd caught someone called Ebisu buying, though, there is an iron-hard sense of focus that Karin can definitely respect.

It reminds Karin, yet again, of all the people they'll be helping if this goes well. Oh, there are other things available for people to use, but most of them have such unpleasant potential side effects that not everybody is willing to take the risk, and they're definitely not suitable for use by children. That would be why Ino's here now, working so hard - that, and the need to put a smile back onto the face of the mother of one of her closest friends.

The Nara have been a big part of all this research into new herbs and drugs, and Karin has had any number of chances to see for herself the way Yoshino acts, and to feel the creeping gloom that swallows her chakra presence without warning, even in the middle of conversations. She'd lost a husband to the war, from what Karin's heard, and even this space of years thereafter has not diminished her grief.

If this goes well, they can help her, perhaps, along with so many others.

 _Maybe even Sasuke..._ That's a piece of speculation that Karin will never voice aloud, not where others will hear her, but Sasuke is her friend, even if he'll never be more (and she knows that now, reminds herself when her thoughts go creeping into those old daydreams), and even with Jūgo there to help him, he might still find something he needs in the drugs that are coming together as a result of all this research and development.

He'll have that choice, she hopes, when he finally comes back from his journey. She can work to give him that much, at least.


	28. Hard At Work

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suigetsu makes some very productive visits, and some work may or may not get done.

Suigetsu has a lot on his mind right now, including some things he hadn't really wanted to think about, and it always seems to be the case that his problems are ones he can't even tell anybody about, because they either won't understand where he's coming from, or would need to be brought into the loop on a number of secrets that are really better off not being shared around. He supposes he kind of deserves that, since he'd started all this chaos of his own free will; it's probably only fitting that some of the consequences still linger on around him.

It makes it something of a relief, really, to put off his brooding over the future and demonstrate to Boruto a few interesting kunai tricks the boy won't have learned anywhere else. Boruto likes to act like he already knows things, and that adults are silly people with silly concerns, but when Suigetsu disarms him five times running, even when Boruto's started to use a few tricks that are actually pretty impressive for his age, Boruto does settle down a bit and pay attention so that he can find out how Suigetsu had managed to get his weapon from him every single time.

Suigetsu isn't entirely sure whether or not Boruto's worked out yet that stabbing Suigetsu with a kunai is pretty pointless anyway, but at the rate things are progressing, Suigetsu figures he has another month or so before Boruto manages to break the skin anywhere and find that out. It certainly makes training someone easier, he thinks, when he knows that even the wildest and most unpredictable fluke attack isn't actually going to hurt him.

He sets Boruto to flinging kunai at targets to refine his aim, and lounges on the grass, sipping loudly from his water bottle. That part's probably unnecessary, but he's promised Boruto they can take a break once Boruto hits the target dead centre three times in a row, and he wants to see if Boruto can keep the concentration required for that even when irritated.

So he drinks noisily, hums off-key, and intermittently points out birds and animals in tones of theatrical surprise, usually right when Boruto's lining everything up for another throw. He can see Boruto getting more and more frustrated, and his throws are rapidly losing their accuracy, so he tuts regretfully over that, too, and points out that Boruto's further behind now than he had been when they'd started, so it sure looks like they might wind up staying all day out here.

"That's still not the target," he points out, casually, as Boruto flings the kunai at the ground with a loud and frustrated noise.

"Urgh!" Boruto scowls, hands on his hips. "I know it's not the target! You keep distracting me!"

Suigetsu yawns ostentatiously and stretches. "Do I? Whoops."

"You're doing it on purpose!"

"Am I?" Suigetsu eyes the fuming child in front of him, and decides to at least give him a hint. "My bad. I mean, when you go to use this in a fight, everybody's gonna shut up, stand still, and wait for you, right?"

Boruto glares at him, but picks the kunai up again. For a moment, Suigetsu wonders if Boruto's going to throw it at him instead, but instead the angry little boy turns around and marches back to his starting point, to resume aiming at the target.

Suigetsu's honestly impressed, and more so by the way Boruto shuts out all subsequent distractions, focusing exclusively on his goal. It's not long before one throw hits the centre, and then another, and another after that.

"Nice job!" Suigetsu calls, getting up and brushing grass off himself. "Let's get you home, yeah? Your mother will want you to clean up before lunch."

"Okay..." Boruto drags the word out, eyeing Suigetsu dubiously while he collects the kunai. "You didn't make any of it this time, right? You always put weird spices in."

"You don't like my spices? You wouldn't last a minute in the Land of Water," Suigetsu notes, with a snort.

"Just as well I live in Konoha, then."

"You've got a real smart mouth, you little brat, you know that?" There's no heat in the words, only a kind of wry affection.

"Rather have a smart mouth than a stupid one."

"Pfft." Suigetsu tousles Boruto's already untidy hair and tugs on a little bit of it. "Enough out of you, unless you want to go home slung over my shoulder for all your little friends to laugh at."

Boruto glances up at him, eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't."

"Do you really wanna test that?"

Apparently, he doesn't. Suigetsu escorts Boruto home without any further delays, and returns him to his mother's keeping. An afternoon shift in Tenten's shop awaits Suigetsu, and after this, it seems as if it will be a bastion of peace and quiet.

 

* * *

 

Naruto isn't coming home, tonight. He has, at least, sent someone around to let Hinata know, this time, which is an improvement, and she's had the messenger sitting in her living room, for a little while now, while she hastily throws together some food to take back to Naruto.

Even if he can't come home, she can at least see to it that he gets a better meal than cup ramen.

When the messenger does leave, he's carrying a little box meant especially for the Hokage, and doesn't seem to mind the extra errand at all.

Dinner at home is just for Hinata, Boruto and Himawari, tonight, and things are quiet. Hinata washes up afterwards and puts away the clean cutlery and plates, lost in a daydream of how nice she really has to make the next family dinner that all of them get to attend. When Naruto is this busy, a full family dinner is the kind of thing Hinata wants to appreciate properly, even if that means she has to go all out on cooking it. It will be worth it, if they're all together.

As she dries and puts away Boruto's cup, Hinata realises that her vision of 'all of us together' includes Suigetsu. She's not entirely surprised, or all that troubled - he's Himawari's father, after all, a mentor to Boruto sometimes, and... well, her lover and Naruto's both. There isn't really any getting away from that part, not here in her own head. It's true that things are complicated, and there are connections that can't possibly be explained to others. It's true that Suigetsu doesn't actually live with them. And yet, when Hinata pictures the family gathered together, it feels natural to include him now.

As if her thoughts have conjured him, when Hinata goes to bed she finds Suigetsu sitting on the end of it.

He looks up at her, and smiles, and she can feel herself smiling back without any need to think about it.

"Hey," he says, sounding very casual, but Hinata can read the uncertainty in his posture, and the way it vanishes when she smiles at him, and she knows that Suigetsu had been waiting to see if he'd be welcome, or if he ought to leave.

"If you'd come in earlier, I'd have made some extra dinner for you," she notes, but he just laughs, very quietly.

"I had a bunch of stuff to do. But I'm here now."

Hinata nods, drawing closer, and winding her arms about his neck, feeling his arms wrap around her in turn. She doesn't hesitate to lean in and kiss him, lightly at first, but when desire flares between them, as it so often does, the kisses they share become more heated, and she's breathing faster by the time they stop.

His hands reach out, tracing the curves of her body, and the look in his eyes makes Hinata feel a little weak in the knees. Everything she wants, she knows he does too; it's written in every line of his body, every little movement he makes.

Of course, the way he pulls her closer, kisses her soundly all over again, and whispers "I've been thinking about fucking you for hours now, you've been driving me crazy when you weren't even there" is also a pretty big clue, one that makes Hinata flush, stifle a giggle, and start pulling his clothes off him, her hands quick and eager about their work.

Suigetsu isn't one to hide what he wants, that's for sure.

When he reaches out again, Hinata steps back, smiling at him. "Let me," she whispers, looking down, and begins unfastening her clothes, letting them slide off her body to fall to the floor around her feet. She doesn't look up again until she's easing her underwear down over her hips, and by then, Suigetsu's pink-cheeked and staring, his gaze hot upon her.

He swallows audibly, eyes wide. "Hinata... _fuck_ , you're gorgeous," he says, voice hoarse, and as she steps back within his reach he takes full advantage, his hands urgent upon her, proving moment by moment just how far she's stoked his lust with that little show.

It's not as if she's completely in control, though, not when he knows exactly how to touch her to get her shaking, little jolts of pleasure running through her nerves. Even the faint sharp pressure of his teeth is exciting, when it comes with the way his tongue teases her nipple, and when he's always so careful to do her no harm with them.

If she'd been driving him crazy before, then he's definitely returning the favour now, and for a moment all she can do is hold onto his shoulders for balance as his fingers tease her clit until she can barely stand up. Biting down on her lower lip, Hinata climbs up onto the bed, pushing him down, and watches surprise and delight fill his expression as she pins him down and straddles him.

With his help, she sinks down onto him, takes a moment to just feel how full he makes her, the way he feels inside her, before she begins to shift her hips, riding him with all the strength of her need. He does nothing to stop her, letting her keep him there, only goes back to caressing her with renewed fervour, and Hinata has to hold back the sounds trying to escape her.

They have to be quiet, she knows that, and it seems he does too, his lips shaping a moan that comes out as little more than a breath, harsh and voiceless and desperate. He's saying her name, she realises, from the way his mouth moves, and when she whispers his in return, she can hear the ragged edge in her own voice.

His name escapes her again, and a third time, but it catches, breaks in the speaking as her climax takes her beyond speech, all that's left of her will devoted to silence, and as she rides it out, she feels his hips jerk, hears that choked-off moan of his attempt to match her discretion, feels it as he comes inside her.

Panting, she stays there atop him a little longer, little aftershocks rippling through her, and smiles down at him past the strands of sweat-damp hair that hang in front of her eyes. He returns that smile, in a dazed and dreamy kind of way, and reaches up with a careful hand to tuck her hair back behind her ears in a gesture so tender she feels her heart tighten at it.

When she finally slides off him to lie down, Suigetsu gathers her into his arms and kisses her again, very gently.

"Suigetsu," she murmurs, "you're..." Words fail her, but words don't seem to matter right now anyway.

She falls asleep with him stroking her hair, and wishes, when she wakes, that he were a little less discreet this time, so that he could still be there in the morning.

 _Maybe next time,_ she thinks, and hopes it will be true.

 

* * *

 

The trip to the Hokage's office is, as always, a matter of stealth. True, Suigetsu could probably make a formal appointment or something like that, but that would take all the fun out of it, and that kind of thing is for people whose intentions are one hundred percent official, without any extra ulterior motives. Suigetsu, on the other hand, has his own reasons to want to visit Naruto right now, and they aren't all the sort he'd want to announce at the door.

That's why he's sneaking in, again, this time by pretending to be a box of scrolls. Well, that and the bit where he really likes the startled faces Naruto makes when Suigetsu turns up in his office without warning. Those are great.

He's worked out when the supplies will be delivered, and transformed into a box on the trolley, and now he is, once again, simply being wheeled into this place by someone else who has a nice, legitimate reason to be in here, one that will check out with anyone working the building's security precautions. All he has to do is wait until he's unloaded in a storage room, and then he slips out to go reach the Hokage's office, disguised as an ordinary clerk.

Naruto isn't at his desk today, and Suigetsu wonders for a moment if he's gone out somewhere - maybe even somewhere outside the village. If that's the case, that'd make all this sneaking pretty pointless; all of the risks, but none of the rewards.

Suigetsu conceals himself under the desk, deciding that he might as well wait there as anywhere else if he wants to see if Naruto will be coming back. He'll give it an hour maybe, at most, and if Naruto's not back by then, he'll just chalk today up to a case of bad timing and sneak back out again before anybody can catch him, which would probably be an even worse outcome if Naruto isn't there to intervene.

Mulling over this, Suigetsu whiles away about twenty minutes, before he hears the door opening, and then Naruto's coming in, talking to Shikamaru.

"Anyway, we need a better disaster fund, y'know?" Naruto's saying, evidently continuing a conversation that'd begun well before they'd entered Suigetsu's hearing. "Whenever things happen in the village we always seem to wind up scrambling for the money to fix it all, even with all the stuff we've already got in place."

There's a weary-sounding sigh from Shikamaru, who answers, "I know, but any money in a fund like that isn't going toward current village improvement; that's why people are resisting. They're looking at your plans and seeing money they think they urgently need right now, not currently being used for anything, and they think it'd do much more for the village if we spent it on their projects."

Naruto's sigh sounds even more weary than Shikamaru's. "Yeah, I know, we can't fund everything all at once, especially not when we're trying to save up some funds as well. _Budgets_ , ugh..." These last words are delivered in tones of such deep disgust that if Suigetsu hadn't been in water form, he would have had to work very hard not to start laughing. Naruto's voice brightens again, though, as he adds, "It'll be okay. I'll just explain everything to them, and get them to work out which bits of their projects need funding right away, and which bits can hold off for a year or two."

For anybody else, Suigetsu thinks, that kind of optimism might be completely unwarranted, but people have a way of changing their mind about a lot of things once Naruto starts talking to them. If anybody can convince some tangled mess of bureaucrats to balance short-term and long-term goals in a way that will do the most good for the village, it's Naruto, whose powers of persuasion are rapidly becoming legendary. Besides, that's an impressive amount of forethought going on there, and if nobody else has any better plans, sooner or later they're going to have to accept Naruto's if they want the village to get ahead.

"You're going to have to have more meetings for that," Shikamaru reminds Naruto. "You want me to go see when they can be scheduled for?"

"Yeah, thanks, Shikamaru. Guess we'd better."

Suigetsu hears footsteps, and then Naruto's legs come around the edge of the desk. He watches as Naruto sits down, and waits for Shikamaru to leave, after only a little more discussion of budgetary considerations.

Only once he's sure they're alone together does Suigetsu speak. "Hard at work, huh?"

He's trickled out from under the desk far enough that he can see the shock on Naruto's face, which has gone pasty white in an instant - but even if he'd stayed put he'd probably still have been able to see it, with the way Naruto's chair rockets backwards to hit the wall as Naruto leaps up, looking around wildly.

Suigetsu laughs, and sees recognition filter into Naruto's expression, followed by an indecipherable mix of emotions that look closer to embarrassment than anything else. Forming up, Suigetsu grins, and pats Naruto lightly on the shoulder. "Relax, okay? It's only me."

"You've gotta stop doing that," Naruto complains, but he does collapse back into his chair before pulling it up to the desk again. "How's it gonna look if you kill me with a heart attack one of these days?"

"Aw, c'mon, your heart's just fine, isn't it?"

"It was until about five minutes ago..."

"My bad, my bad... anyway, when was the last time you got out of here?"

Naruto twists in his seat to stare at the angle of the sun. "What day is it?"

"That bad, huh? You eaten? Got a chance to get clean?"

"Mm, this morning to both?"

Suigetsu pats his shoulder again. "Well, that's not so bad, then. At least I can tell Hinata you're more or less okay."

Naruto squints up at him dubiously. "That's why you came here? To check up on me?"

"Maybe I missed you?" Suigetsu suggests, laughing, pretending to swoon into Naruto's lap. "Here you are, hiding away, and the only way to get at you is to come creeping in whenever I think I've got a chance."

"Aw, come on, what's the real reason?" Naruto has, nevertheless, raised his hands to catch Suigetsu if that fake swoon overbalances him the rest of the way, and when Suigetsu wraps an arm around his neck, he doesn't shake him off.

"Maybe I'm just horny as fuck?" Suigetsu whispers, close to Naruto's ear, and watches the skin go red, a deep flush spreading across Naruto's face. He actually hears the little gulp Naruto makes, and then Naruto's laughing nervously.

"H-hey, this is where I _work_ , y'know, somebody could come in at any minute!"

"Maybe." Suigetsu grins. "You gonna tell me to stop, then?"

With his arm around Naruto, he can tell when Naruto' pulse quickens, and when Naruto shakes his head in answer, eyes wide, he leans in further, his other hand rubbing Naruto's thigh through his pants.

"Are you really going to -" Naruto's still wide-eyed, and his voice is a whisper, but he's making no move to push Suigetsu away.

"Sure. I mean, here I am, having snuck into the Hokage's own office, so I might as well cause some trouble when I get my hands on the Hokage, right?" Suigetsu says, his voice teasing. His hand drifts a little higher, palms Naruto through the cloth, feels him harden beneath that touch, and Suigetsu's grin widens. "Isn't it just too bad you've got yourself caught by somebody so _awful_ and _disrespectful_? I mean, for two pins I'd get you in your Hokage cape and hat, and fuck you over your own desk."

Naruto's voice becomes something closer to a whimper for a moment before he says, with shaky bravado, "I think... I've got two pins around here somewhere..."

Suigetsu snorts, unfastens Naruto's pants, and frees his cock from a prison of fabric suddenly far too confining for how hard Naruto's got. "Careful, I might take you up on that."

"Ngk - _fuck_ \- if you're gonna make promises, you oughta keep them," Naruto says hoarsely, hips jerking as he thrusts into the touch of Suigetsu's hand, and he lets out a shaky little moan as Suigetsu's teeth graze the side of his neck.

He means it, too, Suigetsu realises, and a little thrill runs through him. He can do _anything_ he wants, here, even turn the respected figure of a Hokage into a shaky fucked-silly mess beneath him, desecrate the symbols of that ancient office in all the best ways, and Naruto will go along with it eagerly, near as excited by the idea as Suigetsu is - and it's only getting better now that he knows how much Naruto wants it too.

"Not yet," he says, trying to keep his voice steady, with a bright fierce grin for Naruto. "Let's see how long you hold out like this, first." He keeps the strokes of his hand firm, unrelenting, changing only when he reads the shifting tides of need in Naruto's body - at which point he stops, suddenly, leaving Naruto gasping, incredibly pleased with himself for the way those gasps are edged with a whine. "Not yet," he says again, close to Naruto's ear, and there's the temptation to catch the edge of that ear between his teeth, dig in enough to leave bright little pinpricks of blood behind, but he can't, not while Naruto's this close to the edge, or the guy's just gonna come on the spot.

"You're _really_ fucking awful," Naruto protests weakly, but he kisses Suigetsu with undimmed fervour, and he doesn't even try to finish himself off while Suigetsu finds the hat and cape, just puts them on willingly when they're handed to him. An impatient sweep of one hand clears a bigger space on the desk, and then Suigetsu's behind Naruto again, grinding up against him, and pushing him forward against the desk.

"There, now, mighty Lord Hokage, Honoured Seventh, just relax, eh? Nobody but me here, you don't have to act dignified, not when you want this so bad." Suigetsu's grinning to himself triumphantly as he gazes down at the red writing on brilliant white cloth, and he pushes the cape up a bit so he can pull Naruto's pants down just enough for what he wants. "Everybody wants a favour, and here I am, doing _you_ the favour you can't ever even admit you need." He's got everything he needs in his pocket, even if he hadn't quite expected things to go this far, and it's just a moment's work before lube-slick fingers are working their way into Naruto's ass, curving to touch him just right so Suigetsu can hear those desperate choked-off moans that tell him he's taking Naruto beyond the limits of words.

There are no replies, or none of any coherency, but the sounds Naruto's making are eloquent enough despite that, and as Suigetsu eases his cock into him, he has to bite down on his own lip at the feel of Naruto pushing back against him so greedily, eager for more. It's only fair, though, when Suigetsu's getting everything he wants, so he tightens his hold on Naruto to give him everything _he_ wants too, practically slamming into him, the desk the only thing holding them both up.

The hat's fallen off, but Suigetsu doesn't care. He drags Naruto up and back by the shoulder, comes within a hair of sinking his teeth in, but that sudden change of angle is too much, and he's coming, his cheek pressed against Naruto's hair, moaning urgently, quick impatient movements of his fingers driving Naruto to the same release.

It's a mercy, probably, that nobody comes in while they're recovering. As soon as they can stand steadily, Suigetsu helps Naruto to tidy things up again.

"Well," he says, eventually, "guess you're gonna have to go home and get clean, take a nap, all of that..."

Naruto nods slowly. "...I think I'll have to," he admits.

"It'll be good for you," Suigetsu assures him.

He might be feeling a little smug about that, since he's found a reason for Naruto to go home and rest that Naruto can't ignore. And when Naruto makes his excuses and leaves, he's carrying a bag, with a waterproof bag inside that, smuggling a liquid-form Suigetsu back out again as if he's no more than spare clothes.

Spare clothes, though, would be a whole lot more forgettable.

If there's one thing Suigetsu feels he can be especially proud of right now, it's the certainty that he's made himself _completely_ unforgettable.


	29. The More Things Change

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suigetsu makes a decision and takes some steps to change his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, guys! I swear I'm still working toward finishing this!

Sooner or later, the fun and games have to stop.

Suigetsu knows that. It's not like he wants to admit it to himself, but it's true. He needs to act like an adult and think about his future, not carry on expecting things to stay the same.

That's why, today, he isn't sneaking into the Hokage's office using yet another devious little trick. He's made an official request for an appointment, and he's waited until the Hokage has time to fit that appointment in.

This has to be done properly.

He's standing downstairs, now, watched idly by a couple of clerks and not-so-idly by the Hokage's assistant, whose suspicious gaze tracks every little movement he makes.

Shikamaru will never be Suigetsu's biggest fan, he knows, not with the things Shikamaru's aware of and that one abortive attempt to get Suigetsu out of the way after finding out. To give him his due credit, though, he hasn't tried again after Sasuke had told him to stop that. He'd probably like to, Suigetsu suspects, but Shikamaru has restraint enough not to push the matter unless Suigetsu gives him a really pressing reason.

Whether this meeting will be a relief to Shikamaru or a provocation is something Suigetsu doesn't know yet, but time will tell, he supposes.

The minutes drag on. Shikamaru leaves, comes back, leaves again, doing whatever work requires his attention, and the appointed time gradually slips away. They're at least ten minutes late, now.

Probably some vital matter requiring the Hokage's attention has come up, and it's taken longer to solve than expected. That's okay. Suigetsu can wait. He's done all his own work for today in the morning, so it doesn't really matter how much of the afternoon is frittered away here. He's bored, but he can handle it.

They're fifteen minutes late and Suigetsu's mentally revising closer to twenty before Shikamaru finally tells him to go on up, with one last dubious look.

Naruto's sitting behind his desk, looking official, but Suigetsu catches sight of an empty ramen cup behind a stack of paper and knows the guy's been too busy to stop for a real lunch again.

"You made an appointment," Naruto says, and as Suigetsu closes the door, he adds, "y'know, I can't misuse my appointment time for other things..." Something about his expression suggests that he wouldn't mind, though.

But that's not why Suigetsu's here.

"I didn't stand around waiting down there 'cos I wanted that kinda thing," Suigetsu says, seriously, and Naruto's face suddenly looks just as serious. "This is important."

"Okay, let's hear it."

Suigetsu lets out a long, slow breath. He's been wrestling with this choice for a while now, and even now that crunch time has arrived, the words seem to stick in his throat. There's no point in delaying any longer, though.

"A while back... you suggested I get myself registered as a Konoha shinobi. I've got questions."

Blank, unfiltered shock settles onto Naruto's face, and he stares at Suigetsu in silence, his mouth slightly open, until he gets some words out. "You're joking."

"I'm not." Suigetsu's thumbs run restlessly over the seams at the edges of his pockets. "...As long as I'm not doing this, I stick out. I'm a civilian with a lot of dangerous shinobi skills, with a background from elsewhere, and it's no wonder any competent member of your staff might take that into account when they're working out if I'm any kind of threat. And I'm... stuck in between everything, where I can't really do what I'm good at." He rubs at the back of his neck, looking away. "I wanna be a ninja again, a real one, not just somebody with a past. And I wanna be able to help out, for real, since this place is where I live now and where everybody I've got left that matters to me lives. If I'm staying here, if this is where I belong now... I oughta do what it takes - if my being strong can help this place, then it should, but it can't if I'm not actually a ninja here." He coughs, a little nervously. "...Does that make sense?"

Naruto's on his feet, still looking very surprised, but his expression shifts into a beaming grin. "Of course!"

"...Okay, good. The... only thing I can't give you guys is secrets I knew in Kiri, 'cos they trusted me to keep those, back then. I didn't betray them, not even when I was taken, and I can't do it now."

"That's a good thing," Naruto informs him. "If you'll keep their trust even after this long, you'll keep ours." He sits back down, still smiling broadly. "You said you had questions?"

Suigetsu blinks. In truth, he isn't quite sure that he'd expected this process to get quite this far. "Uh, yeah. If... Would I still have time for my job with Tenten?"

"Well, she's a shinobi and she does, so yeah?"

"And there's... well, us." Suigetsu grimaces a bit, awkwardly, and fidgets. "That'll put you in charge of me, how's that gonna work?"

"For personal things? Unless you're breaking the law, I promise I won't bring that into it. On the job, you'll have to follow normal orders like everybody else, y'know?"

"...Okay, got it." That promise is enough for Suigetsu, really; Naruto isn't one to break his word, so if he says he won't abuse his authority in their personal lives, he means it. Suigetsu can take orders in the field, or when there's actually a need to, but the idea of being completely controlled, all of the time, had been one of the things that had sent him into such a panic the first time this subject had been raised. But Naruto won't do that to him, and that's enough. "So... what've I gotta do, then, to be accepted?"

Naruto grins at him in a way that makes Suigetsu instantly suspicious that mischief is afoot. "You've gotta go to the Academy."

" _Huuuuh_!?" Suigetsu recoils a little. "Enroll with the little kids and spend years doing classes alongside them all?"

There's a bout of laughter from Naruto, who has to brace himself on his desk to stay upright with how hard he's laughing. "You should see your face," he wheezes. "Nah, you've just gotta be assessed by somebody there to prove you've got what it takes to be a Konoha shinobi. You'll pass easily, but you've gotta go through that - I can't just make you one on my own, it wouldn't be right or fair."

Suigetsu's brief flare of indignation dies as quickly as it'd arrived, and he nods, knowing that Naruto has a point. If he wants Naruto to be 'just Naruto' with him, and not use his authority as Hokage to get his own way on personal things, then Suigetsu supposes he has to expect that when it comes to official things, Naruto will have to treat him just like anybody else to some degree. Besides, with how many times he's deliberately startled Naruto, Naruto probably deserves at least one moment like this to get his own back.

"The Academy, huh? Well, okay then. Who am I supposed to go see there?"

 

* * *

 

Running the Academy is an honour, of course, Iruka knows, but sometimes he misses the days he'd spent as an ordinary teacher, with his own classes to teach, watching his students grow and learn and graduate as newly-minted genin. He's a little surprised to have had a request, from Naruto, to once again give his personal attention to a prospective shinobi, even an adult one - and that in itself is mystifying, since most people graduate in their preteen years or not at all.

When he arrives in the classroom, though, he understands. The young man waiting for him there isn't some ordinary civilian who suddenly wants to become a ninja; this is someone who had been a shinobi, one strong enough to keep up with Uchiha Sasuke.

Iruka has heard about the members of Taka, though these days the rumours are not particularly alarming; by all accounts, they've settled down in the village and done their best to get on with quite ordinary lives.

"You're Hōzuki Suigetsu, then? Formerly of Kirigakure? Lord Seventh has asked me to examine your skills and see if you ought to be given a position as a ninja in this village. I'm Umino Iruka, the Headmaster here."

Suigetsu sits up a bit, and nods. "That's me. Uh... do I have to call you Iruka-sensei like he does?"

A little flicker of emotion warms Iruka's heart at this reminder that Naruto still calls him sensei, even now, long past his Academy days, and having become the most important man in the village. "If you like."

"Well then... Iruka-sensei... I'm ready for whatever tests I've gotta do." He seems quite confident, too, and the look in his bright purple eyes hovers somewhere between insolent and simply cheerful in a cocky kind of way. 

That's not necessarily a disqualifying factor, though; Iruka's had much more insubordinate students who've still managed to go on and become respectable shinobi. What's more important, right now, is that Suigetsu seems alert, genuinely ready for whatever might happen next. And there doesn't seem to be anything in his attitude that would set off alarm bells, or make Iruka feel like Suigetsu has ulterior motives.

"I have a few paper tests we usually give to students the year they graduate, just to make sure you know everything we expect them to know, and then you'll demonstrate some ninjutsu and taijutsu."

There are shinobi, Iruka knows, who would bridle at a request like this, one that expects them to prove themselves against a standard set for brand new genin, but Suigetsu just nods.

"Okay, might as well get on with it," he says, and when Iruka hands him a small stack of papers, he takes the first one and gets to work with all the diligence anyone might possibly ask for. It doesn't take him very long, either, to work his way through the stack, and Iruka has to check each paper quickly, or be caught out by the build-up of completed papers.

They are, fortunately, all answered with the degree of accuracy that Iruka would expect from any competent shinobi, so he doesn't have to stop this assessment there, and when he's read through the last one - noting, as he does so, that Suigetsu's handwriting is unusual and some of his word choices take a second thought to understand, quirks that must have developed as a result of being educated in the Land of Water dialect first - he nods toward the door. "There's a practice yard open to demonstrate your taijutsu, if you'll come with me?"

"Sure. Do I get to show anything but pure taijutsu? My kenjutsu's better than my unarmed fighting, so..."

Iruka nods. He leads the way out, and stands off to one side to supervise as Suigetsu demonstrates, on a set of targets, that his skills with blade, shuriken and kunai are acceptable - though that's a poor word for his skills, when Suigetsu handles weapons as though they're natural extensions of his body. He seems to come alive, too, when there's a blade in his hands, looking more vital, more _present_ somehow for as long as he happens to be holding it.

Suigetsu may have declared his kenjutsu superior, but Iruka discovers, as he follows this up by trading a few blows, that this doesn't make his unarmed combat skills any less than excellent, and Iruka's glad he's been working to keep in shape, or he'd be coming out of this with some significant bruises.

It's only after all these tests are done, and Suigetsu's demonstrated multiple bits of ninjutsu as well, that Iruka moves to the other part of this assessment, one that might be even more important than all the other parts they've already completed.

"May I ask you something? Why do you want this? You've been working in the village, so it isn't that you just need the job..."

Suigetsu looks up from the water bottle he's been draining. "I'm a shinobi. That's important. I wanna be able to say that again and know it means something to other people, not just to me."

"What do you expect it to mean to them?"

There's a shrug from Suigetsu, and he clips the bottle back onto his belt. "Depends who they are. If they're allies, I want 'em to know they can count on me to stand up and fight. If they're enemies, I want 'em to know that if they're messing with my home and my friends, I'll make 'em wish they'd never been born. And... this is home, now. 's not where I was born, and I'm probably always gonna remember that deep down, but it's where I live now, it's where my friends are. People who've been good to me."

It's not a high-minded declaration of patriotism, but that doesn't matter, not when Suigetsu has cut straight to the heart of everything Iruka might have hoped to hear from him. Suigetsu is here for the people who matter to him, and that's the kind of loyalty that can only be given freely, not bought or sold. Iruka nods slowly.

"I think that's everything I needed to know," he says, smiling, and holding up a brand new forehead protector. "You have everything you'd need to graduate from the Academy."

The careful way that Suigetsu takes the thing, the look on his face as he puts it on - these things tell Iruka, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he's made the right decision today.

 

* * *

 

Suigetsu keeps grinning, whenever he catches sight of his own reflection in a window, and adjusting the forehead protector. It feels right, wearing this, for all the symbol is different and it's been years since he'd worn one. It feels like everything is as it should be again.

When people look at him now, he knows they'll see a shinobi, one who's been recognised and accepted in that position, someone who belongs. And it means that others he passes on the street are his fellow ninja, now, in a way they hadn't been yesterday, because when they look at him, they're seeing somebody they'll know is one of their own. Those tiny flickers of recognition, the nods of acknowledgement, are worth so much to him.

 _Hello,_ those nods say, _you're one of my comrades in this village, we're on the same side and I know that. If anything happens, I'll count on you, and you can count on me._ So much can be said in the barest few seconds of eye contact, and Suigetsu is basking in all of it.

The very first place he decides to go is to the Uzumaki residence, to show Hinata.

He finds her in the kitchen when he goes in, making a meal with Himawari doing her best to help out.

"Hey. Great day, huh?" Suigetsu asks, jauntily, brimming with good humour.

"Yes, it's - oh!" Hinata stares, and then her beautiful face lights up with delight, and she puts the knife down to come and hug him tightly. "You've been registered? I'm so happy for you!"

He holds her for those sweet, precious moments, feeling the warmth of her in his arms, and then looks into her face again to see the joy in her eyes. Sharing his happiness with her, right now, only seems to increase it tenfold. She knows how much this means to him, how much he's lost that he's now regaining, she understands, and so she can truly see, perhaps more than almost any others, how deeply this affects him.

"Just got this today. Got tested, and I guess I passed," he says, casually, playing it off like it's no big deal and knowing he isn't fooling Hinata in the slightest.

Behind them, a potential disaster is unfolding; Himawari, having finished washing the vegetables and apparently feeling helpful, has taken up the knife to keep on cooking. It slips from her little hands and comes down upon her foot, just as they turn to look, and their efforts to reach her are only a moment too late -

\- but as the knife hits, Himawari's foot dissolves into water.

The kitchen erupts into a confused tumult of Hinata's efforts to simultaneously comfort and scold Himawari, Himawari's vocal puzzlement about what's just happened, and Suigetsu's exclamations of amazement. It's only once things have calmed down again and Himawari has been sent to wait in the living room, Suigetsu promising to take her place in helping with the cooking, that Hinata and Suigetsu can discuss things properly.

"She activated her Byakugan early, didn't she?" Suigetsu asks, peeling a carrot.

"Yes, she did - oh, I should have been watching her, but I thought she knew not to touch the knives..."

"Hey, relax. You've got some amazing medics in this place, they'd have been able to take care of everything. Remember that, okay? Nothing happened, and even if it had it coulda been fixed, easy." Suigetsu reaches out to squeeze Hinata's shoulder lightly. "Anyway, she's even younger than I was when I started hydrifying properly, so I guess she's just an early starter on both these things. I'm gonna have to teach her how to use this properly, but she's a smart kid, even if she does grab at things."

Hinata appears to be calming down a little now, and she nods. "Is this likely to cause problems for her?"

"Doubt it, except for the bit where she oughta be careful around people who use lightning. Other than that? She's actually likely to be safer now, Hōzuki are pretty durable." He doesn't bring up the other potential benefit, since just the prospect of needing it is likely to unsettle Hinata, but he figures that Himawari will be all kinds of better off if any greedy people looking to get their hands on her eyes will get nothing but water if they try anything. He knows, possibly better than anyone else, certainly better than anyone should ever have to, the limits of his own abilities, and the ways people can still hurt someone like him, and he'll have to teach Himawari how to keep herself safe, but against casual malice, her newfound abilities will provide some degree of a shield.

He's glad of that; anything that makes her safer is a good thing. _That's my daughter_ , he thinks, awash with determination to protect her from any threats that might arise, and he's suddenly so very happy that he's been able to pass these abilities on to her. It feels like he's given her a gift, and it feels like -

\- like he has done something in memory of his family. Himawari may not carry the Hōzuki name, but she has the clan's abilities; she is one last piece of a legacy that need not wither and die, forgotten and lost.

 _I'll tell her about them all,_ Suigetsu vows. _My brother, my mother, my father... my forebears and who they were. She'll know she's descended from a Mizukage long gone._

He doesn't have the pictures he'd once owned, not even the ones from the butsudan. He doesn't have any of the mementos and heirlooms that he might have been able to pass down to a child of his blood. All he has left are the stories, but those he can give to Himawari, and he hopes that if he does she'll remember them, and carry them with her into the future even after he's gone. With so little left to give, all he can do is hope that what he does have will be enough.

And maybe, one day, he can feel as though he hasn't failed his clan, his _family_.

 _I remember you all, and I have friends and people to protect, and I have a daughter who'll know your names,_ he tells the faces that hover in the back of his thoughts. Perhaps that really will be enough?

A startled noise from Hinata rouses Suigetsu from his thoughts, and he realises he's finished dicing all of the vegetables, and may have cut his fingers a time or two into the bargain. Since they've just turned to water and reattached every time, without any real need for thought, he hadn't even noticed that he'd been doing that.

"Oops?" he says, sheepishly.

Once he's no longer holding a knife, she hugs him, a quick and wordless gesture that tells him she's realised his thoughts have been taking him to unhappy places, and wants to remind him that not everything in his life is bound up in memories of sadness. It's brief, but even that fleeting gesture makes him smile a bit, a surge of gratitude warming his heart. She's always so kind, and being around her helps him in ways he never could have expected.

They finish the cooking together and serve it up, and by the time Suigetsu has eaten, he's back to feeling as happy about his new position as he had when he'd come here to show it off to Hinata in the first place.

And today, he thinks, looking forward to it immensely, he can give Himawari her very first lesson in how to use the abilities they've just discovered that she possesses.

 

* * *

 

"It's so peaceful here," Jūgo says, his voice hushed as he looks around.

"It's quiet," Sasuke agrees, though he's less sure about peaceful, which to him would imply a sense of relaxation that he doesn't really feel right now.

They haven't heard any human voice but that of each other in  quite some time, now, but Sasuke doesn't really feel as though he's missing anything because of it. Nevertheless, it does feel a little eerie to be in a place that so resembles their own world, but to find no signs of people anywhere in it.

True, the sky is a soft lilac above them, and the trees are a peculiar shape and dark blue besides, but this is so much closer to feeling like familiar terrain than the last several places they've ventured into. It reminds Sasuke of a dream, he thinks; commonplace things viewed through a filter of unreality that makes them strange and new.

"There's life here, but no senjutsu chakra," Jūgo points out, brows drawing inward for a moment. "I can't feel any of it."

That explains why Jūgo thinks it's peaceful, Sasuke realises; a dimension that does not well up with the energy of nature and pour it into Jūgo's system means that Jūgo's body isn't being pushed into one of the outbursts it gets when he's taken in too much to hold. It makes Sasuke smile, just a little, when he thinks about how much better that must feel for Jūgo.

"I couldn't see any threats when we arrived, so this is a good place to rest," Sasuke says, sitting down at the base of one of the trees. He could probably keep going, but there are no guarantees that the next dimension they enter will be as safe as this one appears to be, and it might not have the same benefits for Jūgo. If this place is making Jūgo feel better than he does elsewhere, Sasuke would prefer to make the most of that, for as long as they can manage it.

Jūgo nods, and sits down beside him, one arm wrapping itself around Sasuke's shoulders, without any apparent need to think about the action. By now, it's a habit so strong that if they're standing or sitting anywhere close to each other, Sasuke knows sooner or later he'll have Jūgo holding him. He doesn't mind, though. It's comforting, and keeps him grounded, no matter what uncomfortable patterns of thought might try to turn up in his head. And it tells him, without a word, every single time, that he's loved and appreciated without any condition or hesitation.

And _that_ , Sasuke thinks, as he turns to kiss Jūgo lightly, is the most precious gift he could ever be given.


	30. Cooking Is Easy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suigetsu spends some time with Naruto and Hinata, and comes face to face with some unaddressed feelings.

"Almost feels weird, you being the one to call me up here," Suigetsu says cheerfully, standing in front of Naruto's desk. "Kind of a pity not to be sneaking in the way I used to, that was always fun."

Naruto laughs a bit, and his cheeks darken, and Suigetsu suspects he's remembering some of the more interesting results of Suigetsu creeping into the Hokage's office unexpectedly. He does, however, cough, and put his official face back on.

"Oh, yeah, sorry." Suigetsu straightens up a bit. "You've got something you need me to do - Lord Hokage?" The words feel strange coming from his mouth, but if this is official business, he supposes he has to do things formally, like any other ninja in the village.

"Ah - yes, I have a job for you." Naruto coughs again, before his smile reappears. "I want you to spend some time working as a bodyguard for Hinata and the kids while I'm at work. I know you'll look out for them, and I know you're good in a fight, so you'll be a good choice there."

Suigetsu stares at him. Has Naruto just... handed him the perfect excuse to come and go from the Uzumaki residence whenever he sees fit, no matter what hour of day or night that might be? It sure seems like he has, but... this is official, isn't it? And Naruto is all about doing official things for official reasons, not just for personal ones, isn't he? It takes a few more moments to process this whole thing, and then Suigetsu finds that he can see Naruto's point.

All right, Suigetsu is good in a fight, and he is pretty deeply invested in keeping the Uzumaki family safe, and he does have enough experience in infiltrations himself that he can turn it around and spot any suspicious signs that might indicate somebody else is trying to sneak in... When he frames it around that, it makes sense. And Naruto, as far as he can tell, believes in giving people the right tasks for them, on more than one level. Suigetsu's heard enough from people whose tasks have been designed specifically according to both what they can do and what they will feel fulfilled by doing, to know that much. There are people out there busy with missions specifically tailored toward whatever means the most to them - a compassionate move, and a shrewd one, because people do always give their best effort when what they're doing is important to them.

"I won't let you down," he says, at last, and is rewarded with another one of those incredibly bright and sunny smiles.

"I know," Naruto says cheerfully.

"Is that everything?" Suigetsu asks, tilting his head a little. "Or is there anything else, while I'm here?"

"That's all of it. But I'm going to stop for lunch if you want to join me?" Naruto offers.

"Sure." Suigetsu grins. He's just glad, in all honesty, that Naruto will be taking some kind of break to eat today; Naruto pushes himself so far, all the time, and it worries Hinata, but Suigetsu finds himself concerned over it as well. "Let me guess, it's gonna be ramen?"

"It's like you read my mind," Naruto says, laughing. He stands, and stretches, and winces a little, mid-stretch.

"You've been sitting still for too long," Suigetsu chides mildly, and Naruto makes a surprised little noise as he shifts around behind him to help with those stiff muscles. "Here, it's your shoulder, isn't it?"

"Yeah - _ow_ \- yeah, that's it," Naruto agrees, leaning into Suigetsu's touch.

Suigetsu can guess at why; the prosthetic arm is a wondrous thing, fashioned by phenomenal medics, but it probably doesn't weigh _exactly_ the same as Naruto's arm, or connect in precisely the same way, and even after this long, that tiny hint of a mismatch is probably affecting how Naruto holds his arms, and thus the rest of him, while he sits. Even a little thing like that can have an effect - Suigetsu, with his unusual abilities, knows better than most shinobi how altering the weight and other properties of one limb can demand that one compensate for it balance-wise, and he's seen civilians whose work favours one limb over another, and observed the ways in which that changes their movements.

"There we go, you've just gotta relax a bit, your muscles are turning themselves into knots there."

"I know..." Naruto sighs.

A sudden, wicked grin lights up Suigetsu's face. "Hey, since you're not being all official now... why don't we stop off somewhere else before we eat, give you a chance to relax?"

"Where? I can't take too long..." Naruto begins.

"Your place? Nice bath'd do wonders for you."

Naruto's eyes go wide for a moment, and his face flushes, and Suigetsu knows that he's picked up on the clues being sprinkled liberally through that suggestion. "O-okay - I'll just - tell people I'll be out for a little while -" At the speed he moves toward the door, it's clear that his enthusiasm for the idea is rapidly growing.

_Probably not the only thing, either,_ Suigetsu thinks, grinning to himself. "Meet you there, okay?"

He saunters out of the building, and then takes to the rooftops, not caring now if anybody sees him go. Since he's been assigned official business regarding the Uzumaki household, he can head there openly now, without having to pretend he's not actually going there. That will save time, though he suspects he'll probably end up sneaking in every so often anyway, for nostalgia's sake if nothing else.

Right now, however, he reaches the house quickly, and realises that it's currently unoccupied - Hinata must be out for the day with Himawari, and Boruto is at the Academy, which means that Suigetsu and Naruto will have the house to themselves for a little while, at least, and a little while is all they'll really need.

By the time Naruto arrives, Suigetsu has already run a nice hot bath, and he's waiting in it for Naruto to join him. A side benefit of this, of course, is getting to watch as Naruto pulls off his clothes, and appreciating the look of him while he gets ready for the bath. All that office work hasn't robbed Naruto entirely of his muscles, and even a diet filled with ramen is apparently not enough to hide those muscles beneath a layer of fat.

He looks so much livelier here, outside the office, without work concerns to weigh him down, and from the look in those astoundingly blue eyes, he's doing a little ogling of his own.

Suigetsu doesn't mind in the slightest; he stretches lazily, showing himself off, and watches the blush spreading across so much of Naruto's bare skin with interest. "C'mon, then?" he invites, grinning, and beckons for Naruto to join him in the tub.

Once Naruto's in there, and settled comfortably in place, Suigetsu can get to work, using his control over the water to massage all of those stiff, sore muscles, working the tension-knots out of them slowly. It almost seems counterproductive to get Naruto so relaxed, but he likes the look of sleepy pleasure that fills Naruto's expression, the way Naruto yields to his touch with such complete trust and lets him do whatever he likes. He can wait a little longer before suggesting anything else, and they'll have more fun if Naruto isn't quite as tense anymore.

"That's what I needed," Naruto mumbles, eyes half-closed, smiling blissfully at him. "Thanks..."

"Hey, no problem." Suigetsu leans in and kisses him at last, hands running lightly over Naruto's chest and belly. "I think there's a few more things you could do with, though, don't you?"

Naruto doesn't even bring up his schedule, or the time they might take, or anything like that: he just lets out an enthusiastic "mmm" and pulls Suigetsu closer, so eagerly that Suigetsu knows he must have been waiting for this too. His cock's already rising as Suigetsu's fingers curl around it and begin to stroke, and his moans are soft, at first, but become more urgent the longer Suigetsu keeps going.

"Like this, huh?" Suigetsu asks, grinning, between kisses, spreading Naruto's legs wider, taking a few extra moments to appreciate that desperately wanton look on Naruto's face, the flushed cheeks, the bitten lip - and the way Naruto's body looks when he's held like this, the little twitches and shivers of anticipation. He hears an impatient little whine, and shifts in closer, his water-melded fingers busy reminding Naruto that Suigetsu knows exactly what kinds of things will get Naruto begging for more, pleading for Suigetsu to hurry up and fuck him.

He'd tease Naruto even longer, but his own patience won't last forever, and hearing Naruto beg is too much for him; Suigetsu eases his fingers out, and replaces them with his cock in one quick, smooth thrust, treasuring the sensation and  the gasp it gets from Naruto as he sinks all the way in.

"Fuck, you always feel so good," he says, breathlessly, pulling Naruto into another kiss, neither of them caring when Suigetsu's fangs nick Naruto's lips along the way. He can taste that hint of blood, and doesn't mind at all, not when Naruto's moving on his cock, greedy for more. Suigetsu moans, gathers what little concentration he can muster in the face of something like that, and draws upon his jutsu, swelling inside Naruto, pushing things as far as Naruto can handle.

There's a hint of a whimper in Naruto's moans now, and words like "please" and "oh fuck, yes" come out as little more than whispers, and this is what he loves, they both know it, this point where Naruto's stuffed as full as his ass can handle is what gets Naruto going more than practically anything else they could possibly do. Suigetsu's thrusting into him, their voices mingling, his sheer size making Naruto so tight around him that it almost hurts, but in the best way, and when he leans in and digs his teeth into Naruto's shoulder he feels every single jolt and quiver of Naruto's muscles around him, right to the core.

He comes first, this time, but Naruto's not far behind, not when Suigetsu's hand is skilled and urgent around his cock and he's being bitten like that - and he's loud, much louder than Suigetsu, eyes closed, so eager, so _gorgeous_ , as his head slumps back and he relaxes completely, aside from the panting and the way Suigetsu can tell his heart's still racing.

Suigetsu shrinks down, eases out of him, and supports Naruto so the guy won't slide under the water completely. Staring into Naruto's blissed-out expression, he thinks, ruefully, _Fuck, he means so much, doesn't he?_

He doesn't say it aloud.

He doesn't need to, not when Naruto's eyes open and meet his, and he feels so certain, suddenly, that Naruto knows exactly what he's thinking. He feels like he's holding his breath for a moment there, waiting for a reaction, but all Naruto does is laugh, yawn, and stretch again, before informing Suigetsu that he's still hungry, so it would probably be a good idea to get on with the 'lunch' part of this little trip out of the office.

They make sure they're both quite clean before they get out and dress, and then it's just a matter of strolling on over to Ichiraku's to order two bowls of ramen, and taking the time to sit and eat together, before Naruto has to go back to work.

Suigetsu takes some satisfaction in noting that Naruto looks a whole lot more cheerful now, and way more relaxed. This little excursion's been a good thing for both of them.

 

* * *

 

Himawari has loved pandas for a very long time now, and that doesn't appear likely to change any time soon.

That's why Hinata has been sitting here, waiting, while Himawari tries on a panda kigurumi that she'd seen in a shop window and hadn't been able to resist. They'll probably wind up buying it, if it fits, Hinata thinks; if it's going to make Himawari happy and see regular wear, then it will be worth the price.

"Mama, it's on!" Himawari practically skips out of the changing room, doing a little twirl, her hands held up in delight. "Look!"

It fits, that much is clear, but it's also completely adorable, and Hinata beams at her daughter, who's still twirling and jumping and trying to get a better look at herself in a mirror. "Oh, I see, and it looks so sweet! Do you think you'll wear it?"

"I'll wear it all the time!" Himawari promises eagerly, hands clasped in front of her. "I can really get it? Please?"

"Yes, I think so." Hinata's works are almost drowned out entirely by the delighted laughter. "Why don't you change back, and we'll go pay for that?"

This part is, it seems, a little more difficult than it appears. Himawari's far too excited to slow down and change her clothes back, and she appears determined to keep the panda outfit on for as long as possible. In the end, Hinata resorts to holding Himawari still just long enough for the sales clerk to get at the tag while the garment's still on, pays, and allows Himawari to keep wearing the kigurumi for the rest of their shopping trip.

She'll be tired enough to take it away by evening, surely, so Hinata can just wash it then, and let Himawari bask in the excitement of the new clothes up until that point.

It's getting to later in the afternoon by the time they get home, and Hinata sees Suigetsu waiting out the front of the house for them. That's something of a surprise; even now that he's officially a Konoha shinobi, he doesn't usually hang around here quite so openly.

Nevertheless, he obligingly admires Himawari's costume, and comes inside with them, helping Hinata put away her groceries.

"Naruto's decided I'd make a good bodyguard," he says, after a while, with a sidelong look at Hinata. "So I get to spend some time around this place in future, making sure you and the kids are safe when he's not home."

"Oh!" That, at least, explains why he'd felt free to linger outside in the open. Hinata frowns a little in concern, though, and asks, "Is there some kind of dangerous situation unfolding, then?"

"Not right now, I don't think, but I guess I'm more here just in case than as a response to anything in particular. It'd have to be something pretty dire before you'd really need me, though, 'cos I know you can look after yourself, so let's hope it stays just-in-case?" Suigetsu suggests, his voice so casual that Hinata can tell he isn't hiding anything, except possibly a willingness to exploit the opportunities for closeness offered by a bodyguard position, and it's not as if Hinata minds that.

Now that she thinks about it, she actually quite likes that idea, and she's certain that Naruto must too, or he wouldn't have arranged things this way.

She _also_ likes Suigetsu's confident certainty that she can take care of herself; having spent years being seen as delicate, or too shy, or not quite up to standards, it still warms her heart to be offered this kind of respect for her abilities, even now, when so many things have changed. It's like a reminder that things have changed, that she isn't that anxious little girl anymore, and everyone who offers her this kind of faith gives her one more layer of confidence to set between herself and any nasty little voices in her thoughts that might try to drag her back down again.

"Yes, let's hope," she says at last, belatedly aware that she's been sitting there watching him and smiling to herself for much longer than the conversation would warrant.

Suigetsu stays until well into the evening, after both the children have eaten and gone to bed, and he's still there when Naruto finally comes home.

They'd just been talking, mostly about incredibly innocent things, like memories of friends from their respective Academy days, when Naruto had reached the door and practically fallen inside - and then, by some unspoken accord, all of their discussions are put on hold while they get Naruto inside and seated somewhere comfortable, with a good plate of food and one of them on either side of him.

"Stopping for lunch didn't take too much out of your day, did it?" Suigetsu asks, and Naruto chuckles wearily.

"No, that was fine, we just had a really long meeting toward the end there. Everybody's trying to work out what our resources are for expanding the village, and what we need to preserve." Naruto yawns. "Somebody spent like an hour just telling me which bits of the forest would yield sustainable supplies of timber and which ones wouldn't, y'know?"

"Ouch. No wonder you're worn out," Suigetsu says, sympathetically.

The subject is, no doubt, very important, but Hinata can tell that it's not exactly the kind of topic that makes for riveting listening material, which is the works kind of thing to have to pay attention to, especially for Naruto, who functions so much better when it's a subject he's already passionate about.

"At least you can get a good night's sleep?" she offers.

Naruto nods. "Yeah, I'm gonna need it, I think there's another big meeting tomorrow."

Two in as many days... Hinata hopes that the issues involved will be resolved soon, because these meetings apparently take even more energy out of Naruto than some ordinary workday. 

 

* * *

 

Sometimes, the only time that Suigetsu can really see both Hinata and Naruto at the same time these days is during the evening, when Naruto is finally home from work. He could stop into the house during the day, and see Hinata, or he could swing by the Hokage's office and visit Naruto, but things have got busy enough lately that the evenings are really the only viable times to see both of them. And that, in itself, is a little tricky, because that's Naruto and Hinata's time to be together, and he doesn't really want to take that away from them.

Today, he mumbles something to this effect as he hears Naruto arriving, and stands, ready to go, but Hinata reaches out, and takes hold of his arm.

"Stay," she says, quietly. "Please."

He does.

He stays right there while Naruto greets Hinata, and then he's getting a hug of his own in greeting, tight enough that it's lucky he doesn't need to have bones all of the time.

"Wow," he says, wheezing exaggeratedly for effect, "all that time in the office hasn't done anything to weaken your grip, has it?"

Naruto laughs sheepishly, and lets go. "Sorry, sorry..."

Hinata smiles, looking between the two of them. "Will you help me make dinner while Naruto gets clean?" she asks Suigetsu, and he nods.

"No problem." He heads into the kitchen and starts digging vegetables out of the fridge, sorting through them for the best ones.

Hinata joins him there only a few moments later, and as she gets the pots and pans out of the cupboards, she keeps looking over at him. "Suigetsu," she begins, with another sidelong glance, "are you... do you not want to be around Naruto at the moment? Or... is it me?"

"What? No way," he protests. "You're both great, I just... you guys need some time to yourselves as well, don't you?" Is he wrong? He's unsure, suddenly, because he must have been giving off some weird signals for Hinata to ask him something like this.

"We do take that time, but... you belong here, now, for as long as you want to," she says, seriously. "You're part of our life, now."

"It doesn't bother you if..." Suigetsu shakes his head. "Never mind."

"No, tell me?"

This might be the most difficult kind of conversation Suigetsu could possibly be having here. "Naruto is... well, you know, you married him, sheesh." He laughs, trying to play the whole thing off as some kind of joke so he can get back to the cooking. Cooking is easy. Feelings are hard.

Hinata looks at him for a little longer, and he has the uncomfortable feeling that she's looking right into his heart, or soul, or whatever passes for the place he keeps his real opinions, behind the jokes and the casual attitude and all the wry cynicism. He fidgets, and looks away from her.

"...You love him."

"No! Well... maybe? I guess? I dunno, I'm not like you two, I don't have what you've got, I'm sure of that..." His protests sound increasingly weak as he goes on, even to his own ears, so he stops. "I just... I dunno, what's that even mean? Doesn't make any sense to me..." Suigetsu risks a peek over at Hinata, wondering if she'll laugh at him - or be annoyed by all of this. She's sweet, and kind, and understanding, but things like that can't last forever, can they? Sooner or later, people will always run out of patience.

She's smiling, though, and she comes over to hug him. "Naruto shows people who they are, and the best of who they could be. It's only natural that you'd start feeling something after being around him for this long. He's easy to fall in love with," she says, warmly.

A curtain of hair hides their faces from each other, and Suigetsu's glad of it. It makes it easier to say what he wants to say, what he's been fighting not to admit, even to himself. "...So are you." His voice is very quiet, and he almost hopes she won't even hear it, that the words will drift away, leaving him to feel better for having spoken them, but without having to face any of the consequences of doing so.

He hears her breath catch, briefly, feels the little movement of her body, and knows she really has heard him, but she doesn't let go. Her arms tighten around him, and she murmurs his name, so softly that simply hearing it feels like a kiss. She knows, now. She knows all of it, in all its mixed-up and confused tangle of things, and she hasn't pushed him away.

Suigetsu feels almost giddy with relief at that. She doesn't have to feel the same, Naruto doesn't have to feel the same, because what they have with each other is something so deep that even the mess of ill-advised decisions that had begin all this hasn't destroyed it - all that really matters is that he can be around them, and feel what he feels, and everything will be all right.

It occurs to him suddenly that he hasn't taken into account Naruto's potential reaction, but he's feeling optimistic for once. It's going to be fine. They can all be okay here, and he's not going to let cynicism and gloom ruin the moment. Suigetsu savours that hug for just a little longer before he coughs lightly, and steps back. "We'd better get dinner ready."

"Yes, we should." Hinata's cheeks are pink, and she's smiling at him in a way that makes Suigetsu think, not for the first time, that she really must be the most beautiful woman in the whole of Konoha. "The children will want theirs soon so they can go back to playing until bedtime."

"Let's get on with it, then." Suigetsu laughs, and sets himself to the task of food prep wholeheartedly, moving around Hinata easily to get things done, hardly a thought required to keep from colliding with her.

When Naruto returns, and when Boruto and Himawari are called down from their bedrooms, everything is ready, and Suigetsu basks in the look of delight, the eagerness to eat what he's helped make. He can't think of anywhere else he'd rather be right now, and he's glad Hinata had insisted that he belongs here, because right now, he really feels like that's true.


	31. Where We All Belong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The future looks bright for people who get to be close to the ones they love.

The children are in bed, now, and Hinata and Naruto and Suigetsu are sitting together in the living room, relaxing and talking about all the little details of the day.

For Hinata, most of this is about where she'd been with Himawari, and all the friends Himawari is making among the children of the Hyūga - there are some her own age there, among what had once been considered the branch family before the clan had begun to change its customs. There's even a little girl there who loves pandas just as much as Himawari does, apparently, and the two had spent a long time playing together while Hinata had been talking to the adults.

"A couple of them have also begun to work out their Byakugan," Hinata comments, smiling, remembering the sight of all those earnest faces, the little ones demonstrating to each other the first steps of Gentle Fist techniques they're beginning to learn.

The clan is smaller, now, as all clans are following such a catastrophic war, but its new generation is growing and thriving, and they will never have to bear the kind of burden that had once been set upon the shoulders of their parents.

Sometimes, Hinata wishes Neji were here to see it - she's certain that it would have made him happy. It's in his honour that so much has been done, though, and in his memory, and if Hinata cannot show him this bright new future, she can at least ensure that he is remembered in it. He won't be forgotten, not as long as she has anything to say about it - and she's not the only one, either.

She's seen other Hyūga visiting his grave, heard his name on the lips of others, and it's a bittersweet kind of joy to know how many people still look up to him, even if he isn't alive to hear their praise.

He would, admittedly, probably be somewhat thrown by her unorthodox relationship status, but she can't help that, and she's sure he'd be glad at least that she's happy.

Hinata listens,  in her turn, as Suigetsu discusses all the interesting new things he's been helping Tenten sell, and how they've been sending out order forms to other places so that anyone who wants something a little fancy will know where to go to get it. Pretty soon, he's saying, Tenten's hoping for people from all over the continent coming to visit her shop, and spending their money in Konoha in the process.

"That will be great," Naruto says, looking interested. "We always need more trade, I think, and all the people selling food and renting out places to stay'll be really happy too, y'know."

There's the Hokage in his mindset, Hinata notes, that little part of him that's always thinking these days about what will be best for the village. She loves that he cares so much about these things, right down to the smallest details, but... there are other things, more personal, that she'd like for him to hear about tonight.

"Suigetsu," she begins, glancing toward Naruto meaningfully, and sees that Suigetsu understands immediately - but he flushes, and looks away, making an odd little face.

"Can you, uh...?" That helpless little grimace accompanying Suigetsu's words makes Hinata nod, taking pity on him, since he seems a little tongue-tied now.

"All right."

Naruto looks between the two of them, brow crinkling in puzzlement. "Is something wrong?" he asks, uncertainly.

"No, nothing's wrong," Hinata assures him. "Suigetsu just has something he'd like me to tell you." She leans in, then, close to Naruto's ear, and in a murmur explains what they'd talked about before. She's aware, in the background, that Suigetsu appears to be dripping a little around the edges, the way he does when he's particularly nervous or embarrassed.

Naruto blinks rapidly, going kind of red, and scratches at his cheek. "Oh." It seems to take him a little longer to really process this and sort through all of the implications, and then he's giving Suigetsu one of his bright, beaming smiles. "Both of us, huh?"

"...Yeah." Suigetsu gives him a wan, sheepish smile.

"C'mere, then?" Naruto beckons Suigetsu over, and tugs him down to sit between them. "That's great, really." He's beaming, and Hinata sees Suigetsu's smile brighten to match it.

They wrap their arms around Suigetsu, and he settles an arm around each of them, at first tentatively, and then more firmly as he relaxes into that shared embrace.

"You didn't need to worry," Naruto says breezily. "You're important to us, you know that, right?" Hinata chimes in with a murmured agreement there to underscore his point. "We're all in this together."

"...Yeah. Yeah, I guess we are," Suigetsu says, and his voice is a little hoarse, his eyes suspiciously shiny. He laughs, suddenly, and shakes his head. "All in this together, huh? Guess you're right."

"Of course I'm right, I'm the Hokage," Naruto declares, pretending indignation, and getting another laugh from Suigetsu, echoed by a fit of giggles from Hinata.

"Oi, oi, don't go getting stuck up about things like that," Suigetsu says, poking Naruto in the ribs and grinning broadly.

"Hey. that tickles!"

"Huh? Really? How about this one? And this one? Hey, how about over here?" Suigetsu's practically cackling now as he pokes at Naruto, and Naruto's wheezing with helpless laughter in response.

By the time Suigetsu stops, Naruto's panting, and has to lean heavily on him for support, but he's grinning broadly. "You jerk."

"Same to you." Suigetsu plants a kiss on him, still snickering.

Hinata can't stop smiling as she watches them - they're so happy, and it warms her heart beyond belief. That they can simply have fun, silly times like this together is something special, something only the strangest twist of fate or the most peculiar vagaries of pure chance could have accomplished, but here they are, and they have a life that's full of laughter now.

They deserve it, she thinks, but her thoughts are interrupted by Suigetsu pulling her into a kiss as well, his eyes still bright with mirth, light-hearted and tender and joyful.

"Hey, let's get to bed," Naruto suggests, and they all obligingly disentangle themselves to get to the bedroom.

Their clothes fall into one commingled heap, and naked and giggly, they climb into bed together. They have to be quieter now, which is why their playful suggestions for what to do next are given in whispers, at least half of which are interrupted by giggles and have to be resumed once they've recovered from the latest outburst. At this rate, they might never actually get to the point of doing anything, but none of them seem to mind.

"Hey, c'mon," Suigetsu whispers at last, nudging Hinata toward Naruto, "how about it?"

His last suggestion seems like a good one, really, and Hinata gives Suigetsu a bright smile, before sliding over on top of Naruto, to kiss her husband. She can feel Naruto's hands running over her, and the way he's already growing hard against her thigh, and her pulse quickens.

With murmured endearments and soft touches, they coax each other onward until they're all the more turned on, both knowing that Suigetsu's watching them all the while. Hinata's entirely ready now, and sits up, sinking onto Naruto's cock and stifling her gasp as he slides in all the way. She reaches down to caress his cheek, drinking in the sight of love and pleasure so clear upon his face, before she has to close her eyes for a moment, because Suigetsu is behind her now, and his hands are quick and clever upon her body.

Each roll of her hips meets Naruto's own movements, and every time she moves she can feel Suigetsu touching her, toying with her clit, teasing her nipples, and whenever she pauses, even for a moment, he's kissing her neck and her shoulder again and again.

Between the two of them, she can't hold out for long, and when she comes, it's looking down into Naruto's eyes, sharing that moment with him, happy beyond all the limits she could ever have imagined in that word.

She gets her chance to rest, after that, and to watch Naruto with Suigetsu, and by the time they all fall asleep, not a one of them can stop smiling.

 

* * *

 

It's probably not a surprise, given everything about the both of them, that their conversation would eventually turn to this topic. Both of them consider Sasuke a friend, and as far as Suigetsu can tell, both of them tend to wind up thinking about him every so often.

Suigetsu's sitting beside Naruto on top of the Hokage building, eating lunch with him, when he sees Naruto staring up at the sky - but the messenger hawk goes to the aviary, not directly to Naruto, and Naruto sighs.

"You were thinking it'd be one of Sasuke's, weren't you?"

"Yeah. It's been a while since he last reported back, I hope he hasn't run into any trouble."

Suigetsu shrugs. "If he has, he'll handle it. And he has Jūgo with him. Between them both they're practically an army already, aren't they?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Anyway, I think he's happy out there, doing whatever he needs to away from the village," Suigetsu notes, thoughtfully. "I don't think it's easy for him to come back here even now, not after what the village did to his family..."

Naruto gives him a sudden, strange look. "The... village? Don't you mean Itachi?"

"Nope. I mean the orders they gave Itachi. Didn't anybody ever tell you? Wow."

"Hey, I know about that, Itachi told me when he was brought back in the war, about what Obito told Sasuke. But how d'you know?"

Suigetsu freezes up for a moment. "...Wait. You know about it? How come nobody else seems to know, then?" Off-handedly, he admits, "And I got my info from a dead guy too, Third Hokage admitted everything."

Mouth opening and closing soundlessly, Naruto appears to be battling with a conflicting assortment of things he wants to say. At last, he says, "Itachi asked me to keep it a secret."

That... makes sense, at least, from everything Suigetsu's heard about Itachi, but it strikes a sour note in his gut. "Sasuke doesn't know that. He doesn't know why you haven't told everybody. You oughta tell him, man."

"But Itachi -"

"But Itachi wanted Sasuke to choose what to do next, that's what Sasuke told us," Suigetsu interrupts. "You oughta tell him. That's his brother, and his clan, and he's the last one left alive. He oughta be the one that gets to choose how the Uchiha get remembered, and how Itachi gets remembered." A jolt of empathy forged from remembered pain fills his voice. "That's his _brother_ ," he repeats. "He deserves to know. He deserves to choose."

Naruto's looking at him, not speaking, something odd in his expression.

"What?" Suigetsu almost snaps, defensive now.

"...Yeah. You're right, y'know," Naruto admits, slowly. "But I was just thinking... you guys really care about him. He's lucky."

"Oh." Suigetsu looks away, flushing a bit. "Well, we were a team, weren't we? It happens, I guess. And, well... it's Sasuke." A helpless shrug, there, but he knows as he looks back that Naruto understands perfectly.

Naruto inspires people in his bright and sunny way, but Sasuke is somebody to fight beside, somebody whose strength can inspire others in his own way. He's important.

And Naruto knows that, even if his way of expressing it had been completely different to the way Taka had.

"...Yeah. I'm glad you're his friends. And... you guys kept him safe, didn't you?" Naruto says, slowly, as though the thoughts are crystallising in his mind for the very first time. "You made sure he stayed alive out there."

"Yup. Wasn't always easy, I can tell you. Your buddies in Kumo pack one hell of a punch," Suigetsu notes, without rancour.

"Heh. They do."

"But hey, we made it through, and here we are." Suigetsu's staring out at the village, its streets bustling with distant people, and only the faint rustle of cloth warns him before Naruto's hand squeezes his shoulder.

"That was a really bad time for him. Thanks for making sure he wasn't alone out there."

Suigetsu blinks, looks back at him, and laughs. "He saved us. We saved him. Fair's fair." He smiles, though, and leans into Naruto's touch. "He's a good guy. Always has been."

"Yeah." Naruto lets go, his expression firming up into something more decided. "When he next comes back, I'll tell him everything, let him decide what happens from there on out."

"And the village?"

"It'll be better off facing the past, if he wants it out in the open, so we can make sure things are always better than that in the future."

"Sounds like a plan."

"It'd better, 'cos it is," Naruto says, with a brief huff of laughter. He gets up, then. "I've gotta get back to work. Thanks for bringing me lunch."

"No problem." Suigetsu stands, stretches lazily, and leaps from the building with a jaunty wave, making his way back to ground level in a series of showy hops. He can do this, now, be open about how he moves through the village, even here, and it's a good feeling to know that anybody watching will simply accept that he has the right to do this when he wants to.

Things just keep getting better, really.

 

* * *

 

"Hey, Hinata, I've been thinking," Naruto begins, playing with her hair where it's resting on the pillow. "About Suigetsu..."

"Yes?"

"Well, uh... people are gonna start working things out eventually, I think. And if they think we're ashamed they'll make a much bigger stink about it than if they know we're not ashamed at all about any of this."

"That makes sense," Hinata says slowly, not quite sure where Naruto's going with this. It is how people seem to work, though; hide something away and people will try to find it, apologise for something about yourself and people will never let you hear the end of it. Naruto's been proof positive that living a life that's loud and unabashed can take what people disdain about you and make them respect it, too. She's watched him take his once-despised position as a jinchūriki and turn it into a point of pride, has seen him admired for the very thing people had once rejected.

So, whatever he's getting at, it at least makes some sense so far.

"Well... don't you think all the sneaking around is a bit silly? I mean, we don't have to make a big announcement or anything, y'know, but... maybe we can change a few things, too?"

Hinata listens to Naruto's suggestion, and finds herself amazed that he'd decide that this might be the right path for them. It's risky, maybe, definitely daring, but... the potential rewards could be amazing, too. It doesn't take much more discussion before she agrees wholeheartedly. 

 

* * *

 

The children are not home, today, when Suigetsu comes to visit, which he hadn't really been expecting. He's also not expecting the part where both Naruto and Hinata are home for once, and inviting him in to sit down.

It's unusual, and it makes his nerves spike dramatically.

"Not busy today?" he asks Naruto, uncertainly.

"No, everything's done until tomorrow." Naruto scratches at his cheek thoughtfully. "Hey, Suigetsu, we kinda had an idea, and, I mean... you don't have to, but if you wanted to, you know? You could?"

"...Could what?" That question had probably made a lot more sense in Naruto's brain, Suigetsu thinks.

"What Naruto's saying, is..." Hinata smiles. "Well... we were wondering if you'd like to move in?"

"...With you guys? Live here, all the time?" Suigetsu feels like a few key pieces of his brain have turned themselves upside down and are stubbornly refusing to make sense of anything that's going on. "What, really? What about, like... everybody else? What people are gonna say and all?"

"We thought about that," Hinata tells him. "We think it's worth it, and if we stand with our heads high, people will just accept it as the way things are."

Naruto nods firmly. "You're part of the family, and you oughta be able to live here as part of it, without having to pretend you're not feeling anything."

Suigetsu's speechless now. His mind's conjuring up images of a village rising up in indignant revolt, Naruto deposed in favour of somebody more morally upstanding, the family scorned and chased away for admitting to something unspeakable. He sees them all turning on each other in the end, blaming each other for the misery they've fallen into, while the children suffer for the choices of their parents.

He sees nothing but disaster, and he's about to tell them that, to remind them of everything that's at stake so they can go back to thinking about reasonable things that won't wreck their lives, but... he stops, and takes a few extra moments to arrange his thoughts.

The first step is to calm down, and think about why they might have considered this in the first place. Naruto's explained that part, at least, that he thinks the family belongs together, and that Suigetsu ought to be included in that category. And he has to admit, it does feel good to think that he might possibly have a home here, that they would knowingly choose to invite him to stay here permanently in spite of the risk.

The second steps is to weigh up those risks rationally, without descending into wild visions of disaster. Naruto and Hinata wouldn't be doing this if they thought the consequences were likely to be so severe that it wouldn't be worth it, after all. Naruto takes pride in being the Hokage, they both love the children dearly... if this seemed, to them, as though it would endanger any of that, then they wouldn't be suggesting it now. So... they clearly believe that they can face down any disapproval that might come their way, and come out of it just fine.

Once, Suigetsu might have cheerfully agreed, without any further thought, that it didn't matter what people thought of him, but that had been before his reputation had become an important part of whether or not he gets to stay in the lives of people who mean so much to him. But... if they think it's going to be okay, then it probably will be.

He sifts through it all a little longer, and feels the sentiment rising as he realises that this really is what he wants, that he'll get to call this place his home all the time. It all seems way too mushy, though, so he grins, and says, "You just want me here so I'm always on hand to deliver your lunches, don't you?" He pauses, laughs, and nods. "Guess you got yourself a permanent delivery guy, don't you?"

"Then... you'll do it?" Naruto asks, his face lighting up, and Hinata looks delighted too.

"Definitely."

After that, despite Suigetsu's efforts to avoid it with jokes, things really do get rather mushy, with happy crying and an incredible amount of hugging. He doesn't mind, though, not really, when you get down to it, and some of the happy crying might actually be him as well, though he'd never admit it. He certainly isn't making any effort to detach himself from all the hugs, anyway.

It's only once they're done celebrating and he's heading back out the door that another thought occurs to him.

"Well, shit," he murmurs to himself. "What the fuck am I gonna tell Karin about why I'm moving out?"

 

* * *

 

It's been a long day for Karin, but not an unrewarding one. There's all the progress she's been making with the medicines she's been working on, for one thing, but there's also, well... the other thing, the one she keeps smiling about even when she tries to look stern.

The team she's been working with had presented her with the notes on the development of something entirely new, something she can join in on refining if she wants to, something that might benefit her personally.

Another research team is eager for her help, which is always nice, because it means they respect what she can do, but what they're actually working on... is a treatment that should be able to lessen scars, even old ones. Naturally, it's likely to be incredibly commercially successful once it's finished, because people do love beauty treatments, and of course, it's a whole big social good issue as well, what with all the young shinobi wearing the scars of battles they just want to forget, but... this is something that Karin can use for herself, if she wants to.

Nobody's going to force her to, of course - she can decide whether or not she's going to do anything about her scars without consulting anybody else. With that in mind, though, she really thinks she might go for it; all those scars are reminders of things she'd rather not remember, and it would be nice to get rid of some of them, at least. She can get on with her life, with or without those scars, but she rather thinks it's going to be without them.

Thinking about all of this is why she doesn't even bother to glare at Suigetsu as he comes in after her, shutting the door noisily behind him.

His chakra feels strange right now, though, so Karin turns to look at him, and sees that he's got the oddest expression on his face - and when it's Suigetsu, that's really saying something.

"What's up with you?" she demands, eyeing him.

"I... well..." Suigetsu pauses. "...I'm gonna be moving out of here."

" _What_? Is somebody chasing you out of the village again? What did you do this time?" Trust Suigetsu to get himself into trouble while Sasuke's not even here to fix things up again, really.

"Huh? No! I'm not leaving the village, that's ridiculous. Naruto and Hinata invited me to come live with them, and I said yes."

Karin's retort dies unspoken. She has to take a moment to process that one. Suigetsu isn't lying, she'd be able to sense that, so this is actually something he's serious about. Naruto... and Hinata? Quite a lot of things suddenly make sense, in a twisted and absurd kind of way, and Karin has to sit down quite suddenly. Apparently, Suigetsu's propensity for mayhem has led him into something she could never have hoped to predict.

"You gonna be okay here on your own?"

Karin glares. "It's a bit late to ask that, isn't it, when you've already said you're moving out? Anyway, it's going to be better here without _you_ cluttering up the place."

He doesn't even take offense. "Okay, cool. I mean, you'll have company whenever Sasuke and Jūgo are back, won't you?"

"Obviously." She tsks. "And you're leaving me with the cats to mind, too." The cats in question have taken advantage of her seated position to climb up into her lap, which is really interfering with her ability to get sharp with Suigetsu, but she doesn't push them away.

"Yeah, about that... I could take one? Maybe both? Don't think Naruto or Hinata will mind if I do, so maybe -"

"Don't you dare, they're mine now." Karin wraps both arms protectively around Shikko and Bikou, and glares. "I'm keeping them, so don't even think of taking them out of here."

"Whatever you say. Still gonna come around and visit 'em, though. They've got used to me, after all, so I guess you're just gonna have to put up with me dropping in to say hi to 'em."

"Ugh, if you really have to, I suppose, _for them_."

He grins at her jauntily. "Just can't get rid of me completely, can you?"

"Don't expect me to help you move your things, even if I'll be glad once they're out."

"Wouldn't dream of it." He actually _winks_ at her, then, and disappears into the bedroom that will no longer be his after this.

Karin huffs, then looks down at the cats, petting them gently, the little smile creeping back onto her face. She'll have the house to herself, most of the time, once Suigetsu's moved out, and the prospect is a pleasing one. It's too bad about the part where he's likely to keep coming back, but... well... if it's only now and then, he might actually be vaguely bearable.

Maybe.

She won't count on it, of course, but there's probably no reason to change the locks or anything just yet.

 

* * *

 

It takes three days to get everything completely arranged, and by the end of them, Suigetsu's both heartily sick of carrying things, and wondering if  half the village will have heard about it by now.

Shikamaru _definitely_ knows, judging by the way he looks like he's developing the headache from hell, but Suigetsu figures that'll clear up once everything's sorted out and the guy realises they're on the same side when it comes to wanting things to turn out all right for Naruto. In the meantime, at least. Suigetsu's extra-polite to him, and tries not to strain his patience any further with any other shenanigans.

They've had their differences, but those had been kind of inevitable, and even if they're not likely to be drinking buddies anytime soon, he's found some kind of respect for Shikamaru's organisational skills, and he'd rather not clash with him again. So they'll work this out, Suigetsu's sure of it.

Ino, meanwhile, had been quick to pick up on the news, and she's probably at least part of why so many people are hearing about this. At least she's not going into lurid details - Naruto, Hinata and Suigetsu aren't making a big production out of the whole 'married couple with a shared lover' thing, so if anybody hasn't put the pieces together yet, it's probably easy enough to assume that Suigetsu's just moving in to be closer to his daughter, and Ino doesn't appear to be enlightening anybody who's making that assumption.

She appears to find the whole thing pretty funny, though, and Suigetsu has to admit that it probably is, when you really think about it.

Suigetsu's not sure how much Shino actually knows, either; the guy's aware that Suigetsu's moving into the Uzumaki household, but he may not actually know why, though from his approving comments about certain social insects, the prospect of Suigetsu contributing more to raising the Uzumaki children is evidently a good idea in his eyes. 

(Suigetsu gets the distinct sense that Shino feels Boruto in particular has need of more parents than nature provides, for some reason.)

Certainly, thus far there's been no enormous outcry, so it's beginning to look like Naruto had been right, and that the world has simply learned to accept that Naruto will occasionally do outrageous things, but that they'll probably be in everybody's best interest. And when it's Naruto, a lot of things can be forgiven, which seems to extend to those in his immediate circle, as well.

Just to be on the safe side, though, Suigetsu rather thinks he'll keep things reasonably discreet in public, still. 

Discretion, they say, is the better part of valour.

 

* * *

 

Somewhere far away, in a place that never stops snowing, two men survey the landscape one last time, before the air ripples and twists, a portal opening up to reveal a way out that only moments before, had been nowhere to be seen.

They step through, hand in hand, and the snow upon their shoulders begins to melt in the warmth of a bright, sunny day. The breeze that shakes the leaves of trees all around them also sends fluffy white clouds drifting across the sky, and carries the sounds of birdsong to their ears.

It's been some time since they've heard that sound.

Jūgo sighs happily, breathing in deeply, and a couple of birds flutter over to land upon his head and his shoulders.

Sasuke looks up at him, with just a hint of a smile.

"Well," he says, "we're back."

Back in the world of their birth, back upon normal soil, in a place that follows the natural rules they understand. Sasuke feels a slight easing of tension he'd hardly realised he'd been carrying, the legacy of the wariness required to traverse strange dimensions.

There's a little bit of snow still in his hair, but Jūgo reaches out and brushes it away, before cupping his cheek and bending down a little to kiss him.

Thoroughly content, warmed by the affection and relaxed by his absolute trust in Jūgo, Sasuke closes his eyes and leans into that kiss.

 

* * *

 

It's taken a while to help Tenten do her stock inventory, this evening, and Suigetsu's a little later in getting back than he'd been hoping. He discards his shoes as he reaches the door, and steps inside.

"I'm home," he calls, and hears Hinata respond - and Naruto, too, home before him this time.

The welcome they call has him grinning, and Suigetsu makes his way further into the house to find them, to trade hugs and kisses and get on with all the other little joys of an evening spent at home with the ones he loves.


	32. Epilogue: Uzumaki Boruto

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The son of a very strange family looks forward to his future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is officially the longest thing I've ever written. If you've read this far - thank you, I hope you've enjoyed this. Thank you especially to the people whose support and kind comments have helped me get to this point. You rock, guys. :)

_My name is Uzumaki Boruto, and my family is pretty weird._

_My dad's the Hokage, which means he's almost always busy with boring stuff and the others have to keep reminding him to take breaks. I guess everybody in the village looks up to him, but they don't see him when he's at home, so they think he's way more exciting than he really is. I dunno who'd wanna be Hokage, but I definitely never will, that's for sure._

_Being Hokage means always doing meetings, and showing up for events, and being really tired when you get home. It's not that exciting from what I can see, so I don't know why people make such a big fuss about it._

_My mother's nice, but you really wouldn't wanna make her mad at you, because she's kinda scary then. But she's always around, and she listens whenever I need to talk, so that's pretty cool._

_I've got a little sister, Himawari. She can turn into water and she's got really sharp teeth, so you don't ever wanna let her bite you. She's really cheerful though, and our fridge is always covered in the drawings she makes._

_Really, the weirdest part of the family is Uncle Suigetsu - he's kinda Himawari's other dad, but he doesn't make me call him Dad or anything, so I just call him Uncle. He used to live in another village, and sometimes he uses swearwords from that village - they're pretty funny, and he bribes me with burgers not to repeat them where any grown-ups will hear me. He teaches me some pretty cool stuff sometimes, and he's always bringing home fancy new weapons from his job, and he lets me try some of them out._

_He argues with Aunt Karin sometimes when she comes to visit us - she's some kinda relative of Dad's, and she does medical stuff for the village - but I don't think they really hate each other, I think they're just really used to arguing and now it's a habit._

_She takes Himawari and me out for okonomiyaki sometimes, because it's her favourite, but if we really want something else, like burgers, she'll get those instead. She brings her cats over, too, some days. They're pretty cute, I guess, and Himawari loves them._

_Sometimes I hear the grown-ups talking about things that happened ages ago, but it's kinda boring, so I don't stick around once they get to talking about that stuff. Especially when it's about Dad, and how he always wanted to be the Hokage, and all the things he did when he was younger._

_People are gonna talk about me, one day, and not just because of Dad. I'm gonna leave my mark on Konoha, without trying to be like him. I haven't decided, yet, what I'm gonna do, but there's plenty of time to work that out._

_Whatever happens, though, I'm gonna make my own story, completely different from everybody else in the family._

_It's gonna be great._


End file.
